The perfect Malfoy
by Haraldzidla
Summary: When Hermione, Ginny and Pansy are puished by having to do a project together what will they pick? To find the perfect guy ofcourse! But what happens when Hermione starts to fall for the not so perfect Malfoy? Hermione and Draco!
1. Chapter 1

**Please review, my writing has gone down hill lately and since "The Down Fall of Draco Malfoy" I am coming up short on other stories but this one came to me when I was talking to my friend.**

**I DON'T OWN THIS, JUST THE PLOT!**

Chapter One

Sounds perfect

Every female in the world white or black or even muggle or witch have one dream that is the same. A dream so special that they will think about it as least once a day. Every time you see one of us sign then you know that we are thinking about it, all of the dazed looks and all the times that you call our names and we don't hear them we are thinking about it then too. You have to understand that its not our fault, its everyone else's, the people that raised us and all of those cheeky romance novels that we read and the films that we watch that all tell us that life will be complete with one simple thing and then we go looking for it. The only trouble is that its harder done then said.

I once heard that there are three stages to everyone women's life, childhood, teenagers and womanhood. When you're a child you don't even think about it, in fact the thought kind of makes you feel ill and then when you're a teenager you don't mind as much but you still go looking and sometimes it can cause you more trouble then its worth. And then there is the final stage: womanhood, that is when things get bad because suddenly its all you can think about and you do anything to get one of your own.

Personally I am still a teenager and while I understand the fact that I still have a good few years left before I had to worry about this kind of thing I suddenly found myself looking for one of my own, people call me the smartest witch of my age and I am not that for nothing. I like to be one step ahead of everyone else. By now I would like to think that you know what I am talking about.

_The perfect guy._

Someone who was kind and sweet, who knew exactly what you needed to hear, he would e cute and funny and every time you saw him your heart would flutter and you would have a hard time breathing because you are too busy taking in everything about him in. it all sounds perfect right? And while I would love to have someone like this there seems to be one small problem…

…finding him.

I had tried before and for a while I had thought that I had him but it turned out not to work, first there was Victor, he was famous, kind and alright, limited English but it was still something that I could work with, at least that is what I thought at the time. He turned out to be not so perfect, he was rude when other people were not around and he would just sit with me in the library and _look_ at me. I liked my time in the library, it was the only time that I was able to have to myself and the time that I got, the small periods that I could be by myself and not get told off for doing nothing but work was getting invaded because he wanted to look at me. It was weird and not the kind of thing I was looking for. And then the latest, now I am really not sure what I was thinking, I can tell you that, I love him true but not in that way, it seemed wrong for us to date and I like to think that Ron now thinks the same. People had always said how we were so different but so the same in the way that we had fights all the time and yeah maybe we could of worked out…if we had not been such good friends. The kissing seemed off and it felt unnatural to be…_touching _him in that way. Lets just say that I soon found him not to be perfect but we were still friends.

So here I was two months after our big break up and walking down the corridor with him and Harry, they were talking about something that I did not care about and I was looking at the floor was it passed under my feet, holding onto my lesson books and thinking about all of the boys in the school but no one seemed to fit what I needed. Some one that would be there for me all the time, someone smart, someone who-

"Watch it mudblood!"

Something hard hit my shoulder and my books feel out my hands as I tried to keep my balance, Harry and Ron grabbed onto me to steady me and when I was sure I was safe I turned to the person who had bumped into me with a scowl. I almost rolled my eyes when I saw her, after all of these years I should of known that it would be her.

"You should watch were your going" Pansy sneered "I am going to have to wash these cloths now that some thing as bad as you has touched them"

I ignored her as I reached down to collect my books, I was not going to lose my temper over her when I understood that it was not worth it, _she_ was not worth it. I picked them up and went to walk away, I had every intention of leaving with a word but there was only so much that one girl could take.

"What's wrong Granger? Did those dirty and unworthy parents of your not even teach you how to speak? I bet they can do nothing but grunt too?"

For the second time that day my books feel out of my hands but this time it was not because someone had knocked them out but because I had dropped them in my hurry to reach Pansy. I should of just punched her but I had no time to think, I jumped at her and forced all of my weight onto her and her back hit the floor with a "thud". she yelled out in pain and I raised my fist, my brain was catching up with my body and I got myself ready to punch that look off her face when someone grabbed hold onto my bony tale, trying to pull me off of her. My face snapped up and I saw Helen there, one of Pansy's friends trying to help the Slytherin girl.

"Get the hell off of her!"

Helen let go of my hair and I was amazed to see that she was suddenly gone from my view point it was only when I looked down that I was that Ginny had come to my rescue and had tackled the girl to the ground. A sharp pain ran across my face and I looked down to see Pansy clawing at me, trying to get me off of her, I struggled for a second before raising my first once again and this time I found my target. Pansy's face snapped to the side from the force and for a second I thought that she was going to cry. Caught unaware Pansy moved forward and I move to the side allowing her to get the upper hand, her nose was bleeding but she did not seem to care, she grabbed hold of the front of my robes, pulled me up and then let me go. My head hit the floor and I blinked a few times, trying to get rid of the horrible throbbing that was happening in the spot that had hit the stone floor, I yelled out in pain as she slapped me in the face, I looked back and was confused as she yelled out in pain. Ginny was done with her fight with the wimpy Slytherin girl and she had come to my aid.

Pansy was pulled away from me by the back of her robes and pushed into the wall, I got to my feet and caught a glimpse of Harry and Ron in the growing crowd as I got ready to rejoin the fight. Their mouths were open in shock and I knew that they would be helping if they had not been so shocked. I had never been one for violence but this girl had it coming to her.

Ginny and I advanced on the black haired girl but instead of looking scared she looked determined, she wiped her nose and raised her fists, getting ready to defend herself when we attacked. We came from both sides and got ready to feel the satisfaction of hurting the girl I loathed when-

"What is going on here?"

We all froze at the sound of the voice and turned to see Professor McGonagall standing there, her arms folded and a look of shock at what she was seeing on her face. I looked at Pansy and thought about how bad this looked Pansy was standing there will blood smeared on random parts on her face. Ginny's top was ripped at the op from ere the girl she had been fighting had tried to hurt her and I knew that I must of looked a sight. My cheek was red from were I had been slapped and my hair had fallen out of its pony tale with pieces of hair sticking out at odd angels from were it had been pulled so much. Pansy seemed to be thinking that same thins because she slowly lowered her fists, she understood that we were not going to be able to talk out way out of this one but there was no use in making it seem worse.

"Well?" she asked "do none of you have anything that you want to say for yourselves?"

"Pansy called Hermione a mudblood Professor" Harry called and I nearly smiled, they were always there looking out for me.

Professor McGonagall was silent for a second and I could of sworn that her expression was soft for a moment before it became stern once again.

"I was not talking to you thank you Potter. Granger, Weasley and Parkinson come with me please"

Knowing that Harry and Ron would collect my books I followed the teacher with Ginny by my side, we did not concern ourselves with Pansy who was waling behind us while trying to wide the blood off of her face with her sleeve. We walked for so long that my panicky side started to get the best of me and I found myself thinking about what was going to happened to us now and how much trouble we were going to be in. How was she going to punish us? Would she take house points from us? We finally reached an empty class room and she opened the door, her stern glare telling us to enter without a word.

"Sit down" she said in a cold voice as she closed the door behind her, not wanting to make her madder then she already was we did as we were asked. "I can not even start to tell you how disappointed I am with you all right now. I thought ore of you three. Miss Granger and Weasley, you have never coughed me any trouble in all the time that you have been here and this is that last thing that I would of expected from you. And you Miss Parkinson, you have gotten into so much trouble this year that I had hoped that you would of learned your lesson by now"

Pansy sat there with her arms crossed and did not even both to look at the teacher.

"I think that this has gone on for long enough"

Pansy snorted and McGonagall turned to her.

"Something wrong?"

"Oh no professor" Pansy said in a false voice "I was just wondering what you were going to do to punish us"

If the professor heard the tone that Pansy used she did not show it, she just simply smiled.

"I am going to make you work together"

We all sat up in our chairs and looked at the teacher like she had said that the world was going to end, she had to be joking.

"But professor she started it!" I moaned.

"Please do not moan Miss Granger, it is childish and it does not become you"

I could feel myself turn red and I looked down at the table in embarrassment, I did not want to seem childish but she had been the one who had started it. It was true that I had given in to her when she had been unkind to me but after all the years that she had been doing it I felt like I could not longer take anymore.

"As I was saying you will all be working together on a project. I do not mind what it is about and how you go about doing it but I want it done it three weeks. You will all have to take part in it and if it is not done then believe me when I say that at lost worse will happen to you all" she glared at us for a few seconds to allow what she was saying to sink in before she suddenly smiled "Get used to each other company ladies because you are going to be seeing a lot of ach other from now on"

I looked at Ginny and she looked as horrified as I did while Pansy was opening and closer her mouth, trying to think of something to say but coming up with nothing, for the first time in my life it seemed like we were both thinking the same thing.

"You will be staying her for the next hour, think of it as your detention. When I come back I want to know what your project is going to be able. All of your free time is going to go into it and if you slack or even think about not doing it then you should understand that I will hear about it. And yes that included you Miss Parkinson, you may not be in my house but I would advice you to not underestimate me when it comes to my punishments"

She swiftly turned away and walked to the door, before closing it behind her she turned around again.

"Remember" she said "One hour"

**---*---**

"I don't believe it"

Blaise sat back his chair and smirked at his two friends and the shocked looks on their faces, he could see their mind working in over time and trying to tell if he was telling the truth or not, he did not mind what they decided to do because he had seen the historic event first hand.

"It happened, I was there. Pansy just said one little thing to the mudblood and she went nuts. Ran up to her and jumped right on her, it was the best cat fight that I had seen in some time, I'll tell you that much. I don't think that there will ever be another one like it, most of them are afraid to that they will break a nail or something but this was the full effort. And then when the mini Weasley joined in…"

Blaise left the sentence hanging and he smirked, knowing that they were going to have to ask what happened next. Finally Theo gave in.

"What happened then?"

Blaise leaned forward suddenly feeling the need to tell them, it had been some time since there had been anything that was worth talking about.

"She beat the hell out of Helen and then moved in to save Granger, I thought they were going to kill her and then McGonagall came along and stopped all of the fun"

Theo looked thoughtful and Blaise turned to Draco, he was sitting down in the main arm chair his face looking at the fire place as the fire burned and an unconcerned expression on his face, he had yet to say anything but Blaise knew that there must be something that he wanted to say. Pansy was a reluctant friend of his and he knew that Granger was his favourite muggle born to pick on.

"What about you Draco?" Blaise asked "What do you think of the whole thing?"

Draco remained silent for a second longer before he turned his cool glare to his friend and looked at his through narrow eyes, he had no concern for what Granger and her friends got up to but he was still…intrigued by her behaviour, he would of never thought that someone like her would have had it in them to behave like that.

"I think that it was a one off" he finally said dismissively as he turned back to the fire that had had his attention before hand "Nothing more then that"

Blaise and Theo shared a small look before talking about something else, Draco thought that he may or heard the words "potion" in there some where but he was too busy in his own thoughts to really care. He had hated Granger since he had come to this school and everything about her seemed wrong, her hair, her face, her eyes, her blood…but her blood had never been the only thing that he had hated about her there was more to it then that…something that felt deeper then that, he just had no idea what it was.

----*----

We should probably at least try and think of something, I know that we all want to get out of her some time today"

"Oh shut up Granger, its your fault that we are in here in the first place"

"It is not, if you had been able to keep your thoughts to yourself for once then I am sure that-"

"Oh your sure, are you? Well if your sure then it just has to be right. God knows what would happen if you turned out to be wrong"

"My God" Ginny said "What is the matter with you? Do you have to be mean to everyone that you meet or is it something that you only do a few times a week?"

"I will have you now that I am a very nice person, just not to people like you"

"What ever" Ginny muttered "but Hermione is right, we are going to have to think of something to work on before she gets back and just sitting here is not going to help any of us"

"Fine, Granger, you're the smart one what are we going to do?"

I blinked slightly from the shock of Pansy called me smart openly but finally said:

"Well…it should be something that we all have in common or something that we all like or it will not be easy fro everyone to work on. Something that we can work on for outside of class and not feel like we are going to die because of how bored we are"

"Well, we have nothing in common" Pansy said.

"So it is going to have to be something that we all like" Ginny agreed "but is there anything that we all like?"

There was a moments silence as we tried to think of something, we were all completely different, even Ginny and myself were nothing alike even though we were friends but we would have a hard time thinking of something to work on.

"We all have friends" Ginny said lamely and Pansy snorted.

"What you mean those two boys you too hang onto like a life source?"

Ignoring Pansy I suddenly sat up as a thought came to me, if it would have to be something that we would all like then there could only be one thing.

"Guys"

Ginny and Pansy turned to me with confused looks on their faces and I was reminded of Ron and Harry when they did not understand what they had to do for their homework, it was a look that I was used to getting.

"Guys? What the hell would we write about them?" Pansy asked.

"No, not just guys, I am talking about the _perfect _guy"

Ginny and Pansy were silent for a second and I wondered if they believed that I had really just said that, I had never openly had an interest in boys before but this all seemed different, he was someone that everyone wanted and he was the hardest thing to find. Pansy leaned forward in her chair and looked at me with a funny expression on her face, like she was trying to work something out.

"Are you saying that for our project we should try and find the perfect guy?"

I nodded and Ginny smiled.

"It's perfect"

"No" Pansy said "Its useless. He does not exist, its simple fact"

"So you don't want to look?" I asked.

"Well never find him…"

"That's not what I asked, we can look and if we fail then fine but it will still be a report, we need to say what we are doing and make notes, even if we fail we have still done something"

Pansy bit her lip and for the first time in her life she looked unsure about something.

"But if we do find him…and I do mean if then what? Who gets him?"

I shrugged.

"No one will get him, it would just be the fact that we could say from then on that we did, we found him"

The door opened and the we fell silent under McGonagall's stern look.

"Well?" she asked "Do you know what your project is going to be?"

I looked at Pansy with a pleading look in my eyes, I already knew that Ginny was going to do this with me but I was not so sure about Pansy and we were going to need her support to do this. We locked eyes for a second and she scowled at me before sighing and her expression softened as she turned to the teacher and said:

"Yeah, we know what we are going to do"

The professor raised her eyebrows in surprise and I knew that she had not really expected us to come up with anything, she had just been hoping that we could stay in a room without killing one another.

"Very well and remember, two weeks no more and no less"

We nodded.

The _perfect_ guy.

"Sounds perfect"

**Review please?**

**Haraldzidla xxx**


	2. What is perfect?

**You are all amazing do you know that? Eight reviews! Eight! That was more then I could ever hope for in a first chapter! I hope you like this one as well!**

**I WON NOTHING BUT THE PLOT!**

**This chapter is for its zabini not zambini because she reviewed loads of my fanfics and left the nicest comments in all of them, thank you! : ) and thank you to everyone who reviewed, you all made me smile!**

**Chapter Two**

**What's perfect?**

**Day One**

"How about a red head?" Pansy suggested lazily. Her high heeled wearing feet were rested on the table that we were working off and I found it to be most annoying, so far she had done no work towards this. She was leaning back in her chair slightly and her eyes were closed softly, if I had not known better then I would of thought that she was a sleep. She looked clam and collected but I knew better then that, she was worried that someone was going to walk in the classroom and see all of us sitting there.

The pureblood, mudblood and blood traitor, it seemed like the start of some bad joke.

Rumours of what our punishment was going to be had been flying around school all night and while some of them seemed believable others were terrible and as unlikely as the next. I knew that none of us had said what our punishment was going to be and I had gone as far as to even lie to Harry and Ron about what it had been, as far as they knew I had to write lines.

"A red head?" Ginny asked "I would rather not, I had grown up with nothing but red headed men and they are no where near perfect"

Pansy smirked and opened one of her eyes to look at Ginny before closing it once more and turning her expression to one of distaste.

"Your right, red heads are linked to too many bad things, like being poor for an example. Too much Weasley in one simple colour"

Ginny froze and her eyes narrowed, for a second I thought that she was going to say something but she suddenly turned away from Pansy and started to talk to me.

"What about black hair, I could see the perfect guy having black hair?"

I thought about it for a second.

"I don't know about that, I always saw him having lighter hair then that and black just seems too dark for me. Pansy, what do you think?"

"Yes because I would like nothing more then to match, two black haired people. I was thinking more brunette myself"

"What about blond?" Ginny asked and then it hit me, that was it, blond hair and light eyes to match. I could almost see him, standing in front of me, his hand reaching out for my own. I would take it and we would dance, there would be no music but we would not need any, we would be able to dance with out it, the sound of our hearts beating as one would be enough for us to dance together. Our movements would be perfect and in time with one another…it would be perfect and everything that a girl dreams, his skin would be soft…

"Blond" I blurted without thinking about it "I think that you right, he should be blond. We need to look for someone who is blond"

Ginny smiled and nodded before leaning down and writing down on her notes, we had decided to keep a small book, something like a dairy so that we could keep up with all of our information that we came up with. Pansy finally removed her feet from the table and sat forward she looked hesitant for a second before she said:

"Do you really think that blond would be a good idea?"

I frowned.

"Why would it not be? Lots of boys with blond hair have beautiful features, light skin, light eyes, or is that two pretty boy for you?" I asked in what I hoped was a mocking tone. She narrowed her eyes at me before leaning back in her chair once more.

"You know what? Forget I ever said anything"

"With pleasure" Ginny muttered so that only we could hear and I smiled, in some ways I felt bad about the whole thing. I knew that there was going to have to be a time that we would be forced to get on but my mind was not letting me, I really did hate the girl and I understood only too well what she thought of me. I deeply wanted to try and forget the past, to be an adult and forget what had happened in the passed but every time I looked at her…I could not bring myself to do it.

I hated her that much.

"Moving on" Ginny said as she broke into my thoughts "what about eyes? Are we looking for dark and mysteries and light and honest?"

"Mystery" Pansy said imminently "its no fun if you know everything about the guy before you even get started"

I hated to admit it but I agreed with her, getting to know the guy was half the fun although part of me thought that I had dreamed of this guy for so long that maybe I would already know everything there was to know about him. It seemed almost foolish to dream up and guy and hope that he would be real but a girl had to dream.

"I agree" I muttered which caused Pansy to smile in what could only be called a smug manner. Ginny smiled lightly before writing more in the book.

"Taller, short or same height?"

"Well I always like tall guys, but I am taller then both of you" I said slowly as I though about how I had pictured him "so how about someone the same height as me?"

"I could go for that" Ginny said as she looked at Pansy to see if she agreed, the black haired girl nodded.

"Alright" Ginny concluded "so we are looking for someone who has blond hair, dark eyes and is the round about the same height as Hermione, that should not be too hard. All we will have to do is meet again tomorrow, share notes and then separate, if we each take a different part of the castle then we can try and find him"

"What about his personality? Looks are all well and good but we have to like who this person is as well" I said with a frown.

"I know, but we'll get to that later" Ginny said with a wave of her hand and I started to wonder if this was sure a great idea. Finding the perfect guy sounded perfect to me but what if were looking in the wrong places? And then suddenly I had another question that I knew I was going to be thinking about the some time.

What was perfect?

---*---

Draco Malfoy was walking down the corridor with a slight pounce in his step, he had had a good night. The last few hours had been spend with Trisha Evens, a Ravenclaw girl that had recently caught his eyes, she had been good company but he already knew that he would not be seeing her again. She was good but not that good.

He silently wondered who he should pick next as someone to pass the time, he had been with many girls in the years that he had been there and at the start there had been a feeling that he loved, knowing that he had gotten someone from his charm and his looks, knowing that he had to work for her…that feeling had not been there for some time now. He had grown a great deal over the years and it seems that getting older did him good, girl seemed to be falling into his arms even if he did not want them too. The fun of the chase seemed to be leaving him.

His mind was wondering if there was anyone…someone that could change that…and then he heard it. And then he heard them. He completely forgot what he had been thinking about and followed them, trying to find where they were coming from.

He crept closer to a door that he knew lead to a classroom, not normally he could of just walked off and left, there was no reason for him to care about who was in there or what they were doing but he knew the voices. His frowned deepened as he listened longer and finally put the voices to faces.

"Are you not going to help us clean up?" Draco scowled, it was Granger probably doing some more extra credit homework so that she could carry on kissing the professors arse's like their gods, he thought to himself.

"Yeah, like I would want to stay here longer then I have to, please. I have better things to be doing" With his eyes wide with shock Draco only had seconds to think when her heard the footsteps coming close to the door, he stepped to one side and pressed himself to the right hand side of the door while hoping that Pansy was going to go to the left where he knew that their common room was. He had no idea what she was doing there "Have fun geeks"

"And remember about tomorrow as well!" Granger called.

The door opened and just like he had hoped she moved to the left and started to walk to the common room, he waited for a few seconds before slowly moving to the door and looking through the small gap that had been left from her not closing the door properly. He had been correct in thinking that the voice belonged to Granger, there she was putting a few books into her bag like a good little girl and beside her was Weasley junior, the only known girl in the family.

It took me a second before I tore my gaze away and followed Pansy, she had answers and they were ones that I needed.

---*---

"Of all the people that we could be doing this with why did it have to be her?" Ginny asked for what seemed like the millionth time in the last day.

"Because she is the only person that we hate enough to get into a fight with"

She considered this for a second as we packed away, I felt bad that Ginny had gotten in trouble because I had not been able to control my temper around someone that I knew was ad but I was happy that I had someone her with me and that she cared enough to get herself into trouble for me, it was touching really.

"I guess your right" she finally concluded "but that still does not mean that I like her anymore. She is rude and had not thought for anyone else. She deserved what we gave her. Well what you did"

"You helped"

She shrugged and smiled modestly.

"I guess but I was mostly beaten on Helen" she scowled and I thought about how wrong it looked on her, she had always seemed like such a nice girl and a smile looked much better on her face. "you know I find it odd that she did not get into trouble when we did"

Hermione smirked.

"I do not think that she stayed around long enough for McGonagall to turn up, she was probably off some where licking her wounds"

"Yeah" Ginny smiled for a second before her face fell slightly and she turned to Hermione "do you think that Pansy is going to tell anyone about what we are doing?"

"I don't think so" Hermione said with a small laugh "Do you really think that she would go around telling people that she is hanging out with us?"

"Yeah…yeah I guess your right. I'm just being worried, I mean if someone found out then it would be over before we had even started. Finding the perfect guy would be hard if someone knew that we were looking for one" she grimaced "think about how much they could do to make this go wrong"

"I know, but no one is going to know. She would not want to tell anyone, I now that I am not going to and I trust you enough to know that you would never. Besides if some thing was going to go wrong then I doubt that it would on the first day"

"You sure?"

"one hundred percent"

---*---

Pansy froze in mid step and spun around, there was no one there but she had been sure that she had hard something, someone walking right behind her seconds before…shaking her head and cursing herself for thinking something so foolish she turned back around and carried on walking, she was being silly, getting scared of nothing but shadows.

"Busy night?"

Pansy did not scream but remained silent for a second at the sound of the voice that she knew so well, the voice that had once made her heart face and her face flush, she had gotten over him years ago and instead her heart started racing for another reason. She had wanted no one to find out what she was up to, even if it was a punishment being around Granger and Weasley was not something to be proud of. Putting on her best smile she turned around to face him.

"Draco, what a pleasure. What are you doing here?"

The blond haired boy smirked, he was leaning against the wall that she has just been looking at with his hands in his pockets. He looked relaxed as he stood there and Pansy was reminded of why she had fallen for him when she first met him. His hair was lose today and it rested light on the sides of his face, it had grown ever so slightly over the summer and his cold eyes were watching her, almost like they were looking right through her but at the same time she felt like he could see everything about her. He had grown a lot lately and she thought about how much he looked like his father. Everything about him screamed pureblood and for the first time in her life Hermione was not sure if that was such a good thing anymore. She had gone from loving him, to liking him to being scared of him.

"Just going for a walk though the halls. I think what we should be asking is what are _you_ doing here?"

Pansy swallowed and had to stop herself from taking a step back, she hated the way that he looked at her, like he knew everything about her when he knew nothing, he just saw a silly girl standing in front of him, he was always nice enough to her face but there was something about him, something in his mind that was dark and that she did not even want to think about. She tried to think fast, think of something that would make sense for her being there.

"Same as you I should think" she replied coldly "I wanted to take a walk, unless you are her for another reason?"

He pushed himself from the wall and stood upright, he over towered her by a while head in height and he walked closer to her. She did not move but from the way that she was standing there restlessly, putting her weight from one leg to the other every few seconds he could see that she was lying and he found that he did not like it. No one lied to him and he always found out the truth, something that she should of learn by now.

"No, no I was just going for a walk and it is the oddest thing, I was walking down one of the corridors, minding my own business when I heard some voices in a class room" Pansy could feel her knees shaking and her face growing whiter and whiter with every passing second "and so I take a little peak in and guess what I saw in there? Granger, Weasley and yourself all sitting round a table and talking like old friends" He raised his eyebrows and narrowed his cold grey eyes and his expression grew impossibly cold "now what could you be doing with them I wonder?"

"Detention" Pansy quickly said and then cursed herself for it, she looked like she was trying to hide something now "I am sure that you heard about what happened the other day? The little fight that I got into with them? Well it seems that we got into a great deal of trouble for it"

"Indeed? I did hear about it and from what I heard Granger beat you up a great deal"

Pansy scowled and raised her head higher, trying to keep what respect she had left, getting beaten up by two Gryffindor's really had not done her any good.

"I don't I would word it like that"

Draco smirked and Pansy had the horrible feeling that he was trying to keep himself from laughing, she made a mental note to beat someone up soon, she had a reputation to up keep and no matter what Granger and Weasley had done to it she was going to make sure that she fixed it but right now she had other things to be worrying about. She had to keep him thinking that she telling the truth, little did she know how well Draco truly understood her.

"I would and while I would like to carry on discussing this I think that there is something else that needs to be said, like why you are lying to me?"

Pansy heart started to face faster and she tried to look insulted rather then scared.

"I'm not-"

He moved forward suddenly and Pansy moved backwards, her beck hit a stone wall and before she had tome to think about how she had gotten her he was in front of her, both his hand slammed into the wall on both sides to her, trapping her there, looking into his cold eyes and the rage that was plain to see in his face.

"Don't you dare lie to me again" he hissed "lying was never your strong point so I suggest that you stop doing it and tell me what you were really doing with them"

"A project" Pansy whimpered "that's all, just a project"

"What is it about?"

Pansy moved her lips wordlessly for a few seconds and his fist came down on the wall once again sending a loud "thump" through the hall and Pansy screamed silently in fear, he had never been one to hit girls before but her heart was racing, her whole body seemed to hurt from how hard she was shaking and her mind was not thinking clearly. Right now she had no idea what he would do, she had no idea about anything. All she could see was him and the look that he was giving her, the look that she had never seen before and hoped to never see again.

"_**I asked what it was about?"**_

And right then Pansy knew that she was going to tell him.

**OWWW, What is going to happen? I know that Draco is evil in this but don't worry emotions will fly!**

**Please review!**

**Haraldzidla xx**


	3. The perfect house

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed, I am really looking forward to this story and where it is going to go, its nice to know that there are still people out there who read my stories!**

**chaucolai: thank you, I am liking writing him mean because it is something that I have never done before!**

**Chelsey89: thank you for the pointer, I like it when people tell me what I do wrong it helps me to be better next time. Please it I do any thing else wrong let me know!**

**MrsBlaCKwIfeY: Thank you for the review, here is the update!**

**HikaruWolf: Thank you for the review, love the name by the way!**

**xcheerios**: **No, don't worry he is not going to be like that. I love his character and would hate to urn him into someone like that I am just trying to show that he is not all good. He would never beat a women but he would try and scare one to get what he wants.**

**Isabella120: I think that I would love it if it became like that "The Down Fall of Draco Malfoy" was the most popular one that I have done to date and the longest!**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter Three**

**The perfect house**

**Day Two**

The gossip of Hermione Grangers, Ginny Weasleys, Pansy Parkinsons and (depending on who was telling the story) Helen Stevens fight had finally died down. While the events were still whispered about every now and again the heat between the Gryffindor's and the Slytherin's had died down dramatically, at least as much as it could with two houses that hated one another.

The wall was alive with the sound of students talking that morning at breakfast and the normal morning routine was being played out but this time there were some differences. Ginny Weasley was smiling at her friends and nodded in the right places but her mind was far away as she looked around the hall ever now again while making a mental note of everyone with blond hair, anyone that could be _him._

Hermione Granger was doing eating her toast and hr mind was wondering to a place in the back of her mind, a place that only she had even been…_he_ was standing there laughing with her as they danced, his body was warm as she rested her head against his chest, she wanted to look up and see his face smiling down at her but her body was frozen, as she was lost in the moment she allowed her mind to wonder if she was ever going to be able to see his face and look into those unreadable eyes that she longer to see so badly.

And then there was the last girl. Pansy Parkinson who was sitting on her own, away from her normal friends and thinking about what she had done, she had told Draco everything that she knew and her feelings of guilt were getting worse, she hated that he could do this, that he could make her tell him everything. She should not be feeling guilty, she owned nothing to Granger and Weasley but her mind was screaming at her, telling her that she had made a mistake. The worst question that she had to face was wondering what Draco was going to do with the information. He would plan something, she knew that already, he would not let her weakness go to waist.

And how weak she had been…

_**Flashback of last night**_

"_It's…it's silly really, just something that McGonagall is making us to…a-a project of our choice and Granger decided that we were going to find the perfect guy"_

_Draco frowned and leaned away from her slightly but still did not remove his hands from her side, he did not want to risk that she would try to run for it, he had no idea why but he wanted to know what they were doing, he had to know what Granger was up to. It took a second for him to understand what she was saying and when he did he raised his eyebrows and asked in a shocked voice:_

"_The perfect guy?"_

_Pansy quickly nodded, she had a bad feeling about telling him what they were doing but there was a small voice in the back on her head telling her to say everything she knew, he would know if she lied and her heart was racing from how scared she was. He had never been known as someone who would hit a girl but his eyes were dark, darker then she had seem them in some time but she could not remember the last time that she had looked. He had once been someone that she looked up to, someone who would laugh with his friends when no one else was there and someone that she loved to be with…but then he had changed one summer. His father had taken him away for the holidays and she had never found out where he had gone but when he returned…she shuddered as she remembered the first time that she had seem him. He was sullen and cold to anyone who talked to him and it was weeks before he talked in his friends in a slightly normal way…but that look in his eyes, the look had always remained there. He had seen things, things that no one of his age could see and she hated his father for it, what ever he had done had left a mark and removed what ever good there had been in her friend. Pansy had always loved the lard lord and listened to stories of his like they were fairy tales but ever since Draco had turned she had not been so such that he was so great._

"_And you are all looking for him?"_

"_Yes" she whispered as she looked at the stone floor, she did not want to see what was in those eyes for another second._

"_And when you find him?"_

"_I-I don't know, she said that no one would get him but I have been having thoughts about that. She gets really emotional every time she talked about him and you can see that she really wants this, that she wanted someone like him"_

_Many thoughts were running through his mind and he smirked as an idea entered his mind, he hated Granger and any plan that would put that silly mudblood in pain was a good one._

"_What's he like?"_

_Pansy looked up in shock, she did not think that he was going to want to know everything about it, just a small out line of what they had been doing. But what would happen if he did…was there really anything that he could do?_

"_What's he-"_

"_**What's he like?" **__Draco asked again in a harsher tone, eh was starting to get mad and Pansy could hear alarms in her mind, telling her to stop talking. She hated Granger and Weasley she had no reason to keep their secrets…but she found that part of her wanted to…but he mind was screaming in fear too much for her to do what was right._

"_I' not sure they just said that he would be…" she hesitated slightly but quickly carried on when she saw the look on his face "he would be blond, that's what they are looking for, someone with dark eyes, he would by mysteries and um…" she closed her eyes as she tried to remember what they had been saying, she should of paid more attention "smart, funny, someone that was kind but in a deep kind of way. He would be nice and pure and carry her books to class, instead of empty conversation he would leave her something to think about, you know like…unreadable…"_

_Her eyes widened and she attempted to lean back even more but like before her back was firmly against the stone wall, he leaned in closer a smirk on his face._

"_Perfect" he said in a smouldering voice that could of melted butter "sounds like me, don't you think? In fact maybe you could convince them that it __**is**__ me?"_

_**End of flashback**_

Pansy groaned, she had not planned for anything like this to happen, she had hardly spend any time with Granger and Weasley, besides all of the fights and names that they had called each other over the years she had hardly even spoken to them and yet…yet she felt like she knew everything about them, it almost seemed like they were friends.

God what was wrong with her?

They could never be friends, she had too much to think about and too much that she could lose from being their friend, her family would disown her and she could lose all of the money that she had saved away for her seventeenth birthday, if she really thought about it then she cared more about the money then family. With money she could go away some where and forget all about Hogwarts and those inside of it, people looked at her like she was the luckiest person in the world but if they knew what happened behind closed doors…

The thought made her shudder and she suddenly realised that that's what the perfect guy would do for her, he would take her away from her family and make her forget. Maybe her dreams were not that different from Grangers and Weasleys.

She wanted a hero too.

----*----

"Alright, so just to be clear we are looking with someone with blond hair and dark eyes. I think we should start with looks first and then move on to their personality, remember he has to have the look" Hermione said as she leaned over the desk and read the two pages of notes that she had written, I wondered for a second how she had managed to write so much when this was only the second time that we had met up, I will give her one thing though, she seemed determined for this to work out. "I will take Gryffindor's, Ginny you can do Hufflepuffs and Pansy you can have Ravenclaw"

They started to raised from their seats and I frowned.

"Hang on there one second" Hermione and Ginny froze half way from their seats and glanced at each other before sitting back down "what about Slytherin's, who is going to look in that house?"

Ginny snorted.

"Do you really think that we are going to find the perfect guy in Slytherin?"

"What's wrong Weasley, scared that you will like a bad boy?" I said with amusement to hid my anger "I think that my house stands just as good as chance as any"

"I don't think-" Hermione started to say but I soon cut her off.

"I don't really care what you think Granger. Are you really trying to say that after all of the talk that you and your two lover boys have been saying about not judging people you are going to cancel out my house because you don't like it?"

She looked concerned for a second and it took her a moment to reply but I knew that I already had a strong point here.

"No I don't mean that…I guess your right. Alright then, if you think so then you can take your house too"

"I don't think so, this was your idea, you can do more work for it, not me"

"But you were the one who-"

But I had already gotten up and put my bag over my shoulder and cut across her once more.

"and don't try and get out of it by saying that there are no guys with blond hair and dark eyes" I smirked "because I know that I could name a few myself"

With out another word I walked out of the classroom and carried on walking without looking back. I tried not to think about what I was being apart of. I knew that it was wrong of me to be doing this and if I had stopped and thought about it then I knew that I would feel bad. Or at least some part of me would of but I pushed it to the bad of my mind. There was nothing else I could do without acting like I cared about them and if there was one thing that I was never going to do then it would be to put my neck out for someone like them two.

---*---

"May I ask why you feel that we should be involved in your little idea?" Blaise asked.

Draco sighed and tried to remain calm, he would have to remember not to lose his temper around his friends for the time being, if he wanted their help then he was going to have to be nicer to them. He was not even sure if he could call Blaise and Theo friends any longer. There had been a time when they had been close to one another but now…not no one was sure who they could trust with their secrets. Each ones had heard whispers from their families of the dark lord but they still did not dare talk about it out loud, the question of whom was on who's side still lingered in the air and the thought had almost torn their friendship. In some ways Draco wished that he could have it back, it was hard to find people in pureblood families who still knew what a friend was. As soon as the sad thought entered his mind he pushed them a side and went back to the matter at hand.

"Who would you not want to be would be the better question I should think, do you need a reason to cause Granger some kind of pain?"

Draco was something flash in Blaise's eyes but it was gone a second later and had been replaced by his calm and non caring expression.

"A reason, no I don't think that Theo and myself need one. I was merely asking why we should even think about helping _you_? What's in it for us?"

Draco considered this for a second as he tried to hide his surprise at the question, there had once been a time when his friend would help him simply because he asked but then of course that was not the Slytherin way, Slytherin's did things for self gain and no other reason. At least that is what everyone else seemed to think, why should they try and make them think different of them?

"Alright then. What do you want?"

"I want a lot of things" he replied with out missing a beat "but I highly doubt that you would be able to give me even half of them"

Blaise had risen from his chair and was stand by the fireplace while gazing into it and Draco had to fight to keep his temper in check. He felt like his friend was under minding him and it was not something that he liked anyone. Theo still had yet to say something but he was leaning back in his chair lazily and watching Blaise with amusement in his eyes, he seemed to think that the whole thing was some kind of joke.

"Try me" Draco said through clenched teeth.

"Alright then" Blaise said in a voice so low that it sounded like he was whispering "we will help you, but with one condition. At the end, we are allowed to ask one thing of you. Only one and no matter what it is, you must follow it. We help you for the next two weeks in return at the end we get to ask you for one thing. Do we have a deal?"

The blond haired boy hesitated for a second, he should not make a deal when he had no idea what the price for it was going to be but it was Granger. He could see the heart broken look on her face…anything was worth that.

"Alright" Draco said as he excepted Blaise hand "We have a deal"

Little did he know that that promise was going to change his life.

**Please review!**

**Haraldzidla**


	4. Maybe perfect

**Hey everyone, another chapter here so I hope you like it, I am having a load of fun writing this fan fic and while I would love to update this all the time I do have other storied that need to be done as well, even if they had not walking out the way that I would of liked them to.**

**Any way, enjoy!**

**I DO NOT OWN THIS!**

Chapter Four

Maybe Perfect

"You are missing the point"

"Really? Because I fail to see there being any point to this conversation"

"I will not tell anyone" Ginny pleaded "and I was only _wondering, _it doesn't't mean anything really. But if you _had_ to_…"_

"Luckily for me I do not have to"

"Once again you are missing the point!"

"And once again there is not one, if I had to go out with someone from Gryffindor then I would kill myself, end of, there would be no other options in my books"

Ginny scowled and leaned back into her chair as Pansy smiled smugly at her. Well, she thought to herself, this is what I get for trying to be nice to someone like her. They had been waiting in the classroom for Hermione for ten minutes and the silence had become so painful that Ginny felt she had no choice but to try and break it, so far things had not been going as planned.

The door suddenly slammed open and both girl jumped from the sudden noise but calmed down when they saw that it was only Hermione. The girl in question was leaning against the door and breathing deeply, her hair looked a mess, her robes were all over the place and she had an over sized bag over her shoulder. It was a deep brown with cracks in the fine leather and the handles were slowly thinning out from the amount of weight that it was carrying.

"Well Granger" Pansy snorted "it's about time you got here, I thought that Weasley was going to bore me to death just by talking"

"I'm so sorry I'm late" Hermione said when she had finally caught her breath, the remark was aimed at Ginny and Pansy scowled in annoyance at being ignored "I woke up late and I must of done something wrong because the spell that I used to wake me up did not go off" she frowned as she placed the bag on the table and started looking for her books "I miss alarm clocks" she muttered to herself as she pulled out the right books.

"You do something wrong Granger?" Pansy laughed "I thought the end was going to end when that happened!"

"What is with the bag any way?" Ginny asked and Pansy nearly screamed, where they going to act like she was not there all of the time. Suddenly she did not feel so bad for selling out their little "project" to Draco, she had no idea what she had been thinking, these two girls where never going to be her friend and she suddenly found that she was fine with that. A second past and she shivered as she remembered the way that he had acted the other day…on second thought she decided that no one deserved that but there was really nothing that she could do.

"I'm going to the library after this and I have some books that I need to return there" Hermione said and Pansy was snapped out of her day dream as she looked at the book in amazement, she had no idea how many books where in that bag but she was willing to bet that it was more then she had ever read in her years at Hogwarts "and I also have some homework that I had been putting off lately. This seems to be taking up all of my time"

"How could it?" Pansy asked in a dully voice, she did not think that she was going to be answered "we have only met a few times"

"Even so" Hermione replied in a calm voice as she handed the book to Ginny "I have been doing a lot of notes and thinking over everything, there is more to this then just writing down a load of nonsense you know"

Pansy opened her mouth in anger but quickly closed it, losing her temper was not going to do anything, she had to bring out Draco at some point and being mean was not going to make them listen to anything that she had to say.

"Now moving on to something that actually had to do with the subject had anyone been able to find someone that fits our description? I have four from Hufflepuff, Pansy?"

"Six" Pansy said stiffly and Ginny looked back down at the book to hide her smile, she knew that it must be hard for Pansy to say that she thought someone in another house was cute and hearing the disgust in her voice just made it seem funnier. After a second to get her control back she looked back up.

"Hermione?"

Hermione looked awkward as she sat there looking down at her lap and Pansy frowned, she did not think that she had ever seen her like that. Hermione muttered something that they could not hear.

"Excuse me?"

"I have not got anyone"

There was a small silence as the two girl realised what she had said and their minds reeled slightly, Hermione had always seemed like the one who wanted this more than any of them, they would of thought that she would of worked hardest for it.

"I have been looking" Hermione said in an apologetic voice "really I have but I just can't…I can't find him" Pansy almost felt sorry from the brown haired girl, she was looking at her lap and had a pained expression, this seemed to mean more then she had thought it did, it was too bad that she was never going to find the perfect guy.

"But why Hermione?" Ginny asked there are loads of people in Gryffindor that fit that description" Pansy coughed loudly and Ginny shot her a look before quickly adding "and Slytherin too, I would of thought that your would be easy, what about the Creevey brothers? They have blond hair?"

Hermione frowned in distaste.

"I know but there eyes, they are all wrong and then there is their age Ginny, its all wrong from how I see him-"

"But Colin is my age, granted he is not the _best_ person but he had the look that we are looking for" she paused slightly and looked down at the book with a frown on her face. "come to think of it" she muttered "we never did say what age they were going to be"

Thinking of Draco Pansy panicked and quickly said:

"I agree with Hermione"

Hermione eyes widened and both her and Ginny turned to look at Pansy, they did not think that would ever agree with anything they say. Or at the least they did not think that she would say it out loud.

"I didn't say anything yet" Hermione muttered in a dazed voice.

"Yes you did" Pansy said in an annoyed voice, she hated the fact that they were looking at her like she had just done the most amazing thing in the world "you said that they should be our age and I think your right. Two against one, motion passed"

Ginny simply nodded and started to write more down on the paper.

"If that's all I think that I want to go, I do have things to be doing rather then this you know" she turned around and walked to the door "and for goods sake Granger start looking bloody harder" she called over her should before slamming the door shut behind her. The room was left in silence and something seemed like it was wrong but neither girl had any idea what it could be.

"Well" Ginny finally muttered as Hermione placed the book into her already filled to the top bag "that was odd"

---*---

Hermione's fingertips lightly brushed the spines of each book as she ran her hand up and down them while reading each title, she had no idea what she was looking for but feeling of needed something to read was taking her over and the temptation of sitting in a library filled with them was proving to be too strong. Her History of Magic homework could wait a few more hours before she completed it. The library was empty with the exception of the librarian and herself and it was an opportunity for some peaceful reading that she was not going to pass up. Her soft hand stopped over a dark green book _"Muggle fairytales and the magical truth behind them" _Without looking any further she carefully removed the book from its place and tucked it under her arm as she debated looking for another one, she had no idea how long she would have, would one book be too little or too much?

Her eyes moved back to the books and froze, beyond the books and in the next rows was _him. _Blond hair was standing out from all of the books and her heart was racing, she wondered who was standing there. She had not been aware that someone had entered the library and she cursed herself for being so rapped up in the books that she did not notice. He was standing away from her with a book in his hands, it seemed like he had no idea that she was standing there, in an attempt to find out who it was Hermione removed the books from her arms and placed it on the bottom shelf (she would have to remember to put it back in the right place or she would be killed) and took a step forward in till it was impossible to move any closer. Her body was pressed firmly up to the bookshelf and she tried not to move, even if she made the slightest sound then he could find out that she was standing there and move away. She had to know who he was, still be careful to keep silent she started to move to the side in hope that she could reach the end and peak into the next row. Finally reaching the end she looked around and…he was gone.

Her throat almost closed up in disappointment and her heart started to hurt for no reason, she had finally thought that she had found him and he had been standing no more then five footstep away from her and in a matter of seconds he was gone, she did not think that anyone could move that fast.

"Sneaking around are we Granger?"

Hermione spun around so fast that she almost became unbalanced and fell in till she reached out and took hold of the bookcase to steady herself. She knew that voice before she even saw him and in side a voice started screaming words at her that she did not understand, it could not of been him standing there. It had to of been someone else, she hoped to good that it was someone else but her mind already lost hope of the thought. She had been looking at Draco Malfoy in a loving way, the very thought made her feel suddenly sick.

"I don't sneak Malfoy, I believe that it is Slytherin's who do that" she finally said after a few tense seconds.

"And yet you were the one who was spying"

She snorted in what she hoped was a believable manner but could feel the heart rushing to her face within seconds.

"And pray tell what reason would I have to be spying on you?"

He was leaning against the other end of the shelf and she wished that she could smack that smirk right off of his face, she had done it once before and was sure that she could do it again. He looked annoyingly calm as he spoke to her and he looked relaxed as he leaned there with his hands placed in his pockets.

"I think that better question is why someone would not want to spy on me, I had everything, the looks, the act, the good hair the dark eyes" Hermione's eyes widened as she thought back to the list that they had made, blond hair and dark eyes, mysterious and unknown "I think that you could agree that I have it all?"

"Hardly" Hermione replied with a bitter tone "I think that you lack in personality actually. Cold and cruel is not so perfect"

"Ah" he said with a even bigger smirk and she could feel the smugness running off of him "but you do not deny that I look perfect?"

"Looks had nothing over personality in my books"

"And you really believe that I am cruel and cold and nothing else?"

She straightened up and folded her arms, she was still leaning against the books case for support and she hated looking so weak when he was standing there in confidence.

"I think that I know you well enough to know how cruel you can be"

"Are you sure about that?"

He took a step closer and Hermione's mind started to scream at her to move, she always hated to be close to him, in the small amount of time that it had happened over the years he had always been mean to her but the other part of her mind was telling her to stay where she was. It felt like if she moved that he would win the game, a game that Hermione had had no idea that they were playing. He was standing painfully close now and Hermione knew that she would flinch if he made any sudden movements but he stayed where he was, just inches away from her and he was standing shockingly still with a guarded expression on his face.

"Are you sure that you know me as well that you think you do? That I am only what others and you see me to be? There could be a lot that you are missing"

"I doubt that I would want to see what else there is to you Draco Malfoy"

"I could show you" he muttered so quickly that Hermione was sure that she had misheard him in till he spoke again "I could show you everything that you have been missing, the mystery that it me"

She had to dreaming, she thought to herself, he would never speak to her like this. They had never spoken to each other this long without being mean to one another and there was something that seemed so close and kind about the tone that he was using that made her feel dizzy. He hated her and this could not be happening, she hated him as well but there was something there, something in her mind that did want to know more about him, that wanted to know what else was there that no one else could see.

"No" she muttered back in a small voice that was layered with something that she did not recognise in her own voice. Fear? Anger?…pleasure? "I…I think that I am going to have to say no to that offer Malfoy"

His eyes, there was something about them that made her insides shiver, they were dark and oddly beautiful, so deep and rich in dark and sweet colours they she could feel herself getting lost in them. She had never thought of any part of Draco Malfoy to be beautiful before but then again she had never looked at those eyes clearly before. They had always seemed so dark and cold, had they always been so intense just to look at? He pulled away suddenly and she felt like someone had chucked a cold bucket of water on her, her skin felt cold and like something was missing just because she could not look at those eyes. Her mind was screaming at her once more and her eyes were wide with terror. Had she really been thinking these things about him, the person that she hated more then anyone else?

"Suit yourself" he said in a low voice, she turned to walk away and disappear behind a bookshelf once more when he suddenly turned around to her "but Granger remember, if you ever do decided to have a small look you know where I am"

And then he was gone.

----*----

"I'm disappointed in you"

Pansy closed her eyes and swallowed down her yell of shock, she had been walking back to the common room from diner once more and then suddenly he was standing there, leaning against the wall and no sign of a smirk on his cold face. He was scowling slightly and his eyes were narrowed as he watched her freeze, she had no idea how he always seemed to find her when she was alone but the thought that he could do that made her heartbeat increase. He never talked to her like this when they were around other people, in stead he made polite conversation and acted like they had never had any tension between them, suddenly she wished that she would never have to go any where alone again. She cleared her throat and crossed her arms while trying to look like she was not bothered by his sudden appearance.

"What did I do now?"

"Nothing"

She looked at him in confusion and he scowl deepened when he realised that she was not going to say anything.

"You did nothing in there, Granger did not even think about me so you could not of said anything. I have just cornered Granger in the library and had to do it all myself. I thought that you said that you were going to do something, not laze about on the job"

Pansy pursed her lips and looked at the floor, if it had been anyone else then she would of lost her temper by now, no one ever spoke to her like that and got away with it. She wanted to say something back to him, something that would wipe that scowl of her face but she did not dare, something made her thing that she would be the one who came out worse in the end. He was saying that she was lazing about on the job when it was not one that she even wanted, it was one that he was pushing her into. She hated the two girls that she had to work with but the thought of hurting them had never enter her mind in till he had asked her to and she was shocked to find that she did not like the idea one bit. She had called people names, scowled at them and treated them like they were something on the bottom of her shoe but she had never hurt anyone before, no matter how much she hated them.

"I'm sorry" she muttered before she could stop herself, she would do anything to make him stop looking at her like that, there was nothing about that look that she liked.

"I don't think that sorry is good enough this time. You need to do better" she nodded and carried on looking at the floor, all she wanted was for this to be over.

"Pansy"

She jumped slightly and looked up to find him standing so close to her that she wanted to take a step back. She did not like him being that close to her.

"Blaise and Theo are part of this as well, they have said that they will help me"

Pansy's heart sunk and she did everything in her power to hide the hurt that she was feeling in her heart. Years ago Draco, Theo, Blaise and herself had been the best of friends, if anyone saw them walking down the corridor then they would still think that it was true, that they still knew everything about one another but they could not have been more wrong.

"They are helping you?" she muttered dumbly but he seemed to ignore her.

There had not been true friendship there for years, the only thing that kept them together was the closeness that their fathers had. The harsh reality of their fathers being Death Eaters and the war that they never thought would happened had came crashing down on their friendship and sucked out everything that it was. Their fathers had warned them not to trust anyone and so they had not, not even each other.

"I am warning you now" he said in a voice that sounded scarily like his father "if you do anything to try and mess this up then we will find out and you will not get away with it lightly. Your not standing in out way but your not out of the picture just yet, we still have use for you"

She wondered for a second if Blaise and Theo would ever treat her like this, if they would be so mean but she quickly pushed the thought out of her mind. She did not want to think about it too much, there had been a time then she had thought that Draco would never been like this.

She had been heartbreakingly wrong.

"Alright" she muttered lightly.

"Do better next time" he said in a low and hissing voice "or their will be consequences, do you understand me?"

She nodded stiffly and wanted to scream at herself as she felt a thick layer of tears in her eyes, his eyes flickered to the tears that had yet to fall but he said nothing about them.

"Say it"

"I understand"

"Good"

He turned around so quickly that his clock flew out behind him and she was reminded of the first time that she ever saw Snape in class, he was cold and kept to himself. He dismissed you like you meant nothing and would walk away without having to look back. Pansy offered wondered if the man was lonely and as she watched Draco she knew that it was not the same. Draco did not have to be alone, she had always been there for him, when he was mean to her she would let it run over her and move forward and still be standing tall to help him. She had done everything right and for once Draco Malfoy had done everything wrong.

She should hate him and what he had become but still she felt it, she missed her friend and the person who had always be there for her, she missed his smile that only a few people ever saw, she missed his laugh and the way that his arms warmed up when he did so. She did not love him but her feelings had once been deeper then that. She always thought of him as a brother and now…now she was just scared. Her eyes were looking into the empty corridor without truly seeing anything.

"I miss you, friend" she muttered into the darkness before finally getting the nerves to start walking again.

----*----

Later that night Hermione wondered if she had dreamed the whole thing, it seemed so unlikely that he would even talk to her let alone offer…well she had no idea what he had been offering, only that it was bad and something that she should not even be considering.

She had never really given him much thought before and the odd glances in corridors and hearted words that had been aimed at her friends more then her was nothing to go on and after thinking about it she soon realised that he was right.

She had no idea what kind of person he was.

She had always pegged him for being someone that was like his parents, rude and mean to anyone that he came across, he would follow them and become one of his follows but was that true? Did he even had any views of Voldemort of did he not talk about it like so many others in the school?

There were so many questions that she was finding it hard to think straight, all of these questions without any answers was making her feel ill, the answer should be simple, he was not perfect, he was mean to her friends and had never been known to show kindness to even his house mates.

But even so, even with her knowing all of the bad things about him another name was added to the list of people that could be her perfect guy.

_Draco Malfoy._

**DUN DUN DUN! Oh come on that had to be at least one review right there! Please review!**

**Also just so people know Draco is not always going to be so mean in this tory but he has to be right now because lets face it, we love him but he IS evil…kinda.**

**Haraldzidla xxx**


	5. The perfect lie

**Hey people here is the new chapter, I hope that you all like it, thank you to everyone who reviewed , it means a lot to me, so sorry for the late update, I know that I have not been very on top of things at the moment but life moves on : (**

**Special thanks to Isabella120 who made me smile when I was feeling down, thank you!**

**This chapter is for its zabini not zambini who is so brilliant and thanks to her that this chapter is up!**

**I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER**

**Chapter Five**

**Perfect Lie**

**Day Five**

I sat on my bed and started to pack my bag for the day while trying not to look at my folder too much, I had been stopping myself from looking at it since I woke up this morning and I knew only too well why. I knew that if I did then I would cross Malfoy's name off of it. I personally had no idea why I wanted to keep his name on there so badly but I tried not to think about it, the answer may be something that I would not want to think about.

I wondered in the back of my mind if I was doing the right thing.

I knew that he would not get pass the next stage of the plan that Ginny and myself had made a few nights ago, looks were not every thing to me, I dreamed of what he looked like most of the time but his personality mattered to me as well. He would have to be kind and understand what I needed from him and I did not think that that was something that Draco Malfoy of all people would be able to do. I doubted that he had ever been nice to anyone before in his life. He was mean and two faced to most of the people around him.

While I had been going to school with him for the past five years that still did not mean that I knew everything there was to know about him, I saw what everyone else did and for all I knew there could be something missing there. There was a chance that he may be nice, or at least part of him maybe.

I sighed and rolled my eyes, at this stage I wanted to find the guy of my dreams so much that I was considering people like _Draco Malfoy. _I shivered and tried not to gag, although most of the girls in my year considered him to be a "hotty" I simply could not see it, I had found that being called a "mudblood" enough times makes you hate someone that much.

I quickly picked up the folder and stuffed it into my bag before putting it over my shoulder, the events from yesterday were still swirling around in my mind and I tried not to think about it as I made my way to lesson. I had been disappointed when I realised who was standing there, for a few brilliant minutes I thought that I had done it, after years of looking and countless amounts of nights of dreaming of him I was convinced that my searching was over. I shivered from the thought and scowled, why did it have to be Malfoy of all people?

I had found other names for my list but I could not help but think that these ones had been different, all of the rest were on there simply added on there for their hair and eyes, just like what was asked of me… but Malfoy was on there for reasons that I did not even want to think about.

My heart had been beating faster then it ever had done, my palms had been sweating and my heart lightened just by looking at the back of his bloody head. The way he moved and the calm way that he was breathing, he had looked perfect.

Draco Malfoy was not perfect.

I sighed and attempted to push it to the back of my mind once again, it was too early in the morning to be thinking about these kind of things. As thought some one knew what I was thinking about I heard a small yell ahead of me that made me look up from the floor. I sighed as I spotter Malfoy ahead of me with Blaise and Theo standing it his side as they laughed at a first year girl. The poor thing was holding back tears as she sat on the floor and attempted to gather up the books that Malfoy had just knocked out of her hands before walking heart sank as I carried on walking to help her, I had a bad feeling that I was going to be in for a lot of disappointment in the next few weeks at Hogwarts.

---*---

"You have got to be joking"

Pansy ducked her head and looked at the folder that was in front of her so that Ginny and Hermione would not see him smiling, the look of Ginny's face was priceless. They had only been here for a few minutes and already things were starting to heat up. Hermione had started listing names the second they had sat down and as the seconds past Pansy thought that Draco's name was not going to be on there and her heart sank, she did not want to give Draco bad news. It was not in till she hesitated slightly and said his name last that she realised Hermione had simply been worried of her friends reaction and it would seem that she had good reason: the girl looked horrified. Hermione cleared her throat and sat up straighter in her chair while trying to look like there was nothing wrong, this just made Pansy let out a snigger that she attempter to pass off as a cough, from the looks that the two girls gave her she was not doing very well.

"No, I am not. Its only on looks though" Hermione quickly added at her friends disbelieving look "I am sure that he will be crossed off soon enough, we all know what he is like after all"

Pansy shivered slightly as she thought about him, they had no idea what he was like. Ginny nodded and sat back in her chair was a look of relief of her face.

"You're right" she muttered before laughing "I don't know what I was thinking"

Hermione blushed slightly and for a second Pansy thought that she knew exactly what Hermione was thinking, she had been there with Draco and it never lead you to any where good, he would break your heart and never look at you anymore. Pansy could suddenly remember all of the nights that she had cried over him while thinking that he was the one that she was meant to be with, if only she had known back then that he would never feel anything like that for her.

"Now comes the hard part" Hermione said "we are going to have to spend time with them"

"Wait a second" Pansy almost yelled as she stopped smiling "You never said anything about having to talk to these people, there is no way that I am going to be going any where near them"

Ginny scowled at her but Hermione smiled good naturally and Pansy was trying to decide what she hated more, the looks of dislike or the smugness that were clearly written on Grangers face.

"Well that's too bad Pansy but I am afraid that it has to be done, by all of us" she added as Pansy opened her mouth to say something "it has to be done by all of us "I'm sure that you'll be able to find someone that could fit what we need"

Pansy decided that she hated the smugness most of all.

"That's a point" Ginny said while opening her own folder "it says in the plan that we made that we would be trying to narrow the list down by now. We need to all pick one person and then test them between the three of us to see who passes"

Pansy frowned, she had not been told that there were stages to this and she wondered slightly when they had had the time to make one, the thought that they had done it without her made her heart sink for reasons that she did not want to think about. She had not even want to work with these two girl's so why should she care that they had been meeting without telling her? They were in the same house after all and had more time with one another then she had with them…it was only fair that they did more work as well, she thought with a slight bitterness, it was because of Granger that they were in this mess in the first place.

"You're right" Hermione agreed "we are running behind really but I think that we should look at the ones that we have picked and then get rid of some of them before we go right down to three. This is something that we are really going to have to think about"

Ginny nodded.

"I agree"

Pansy was not surprised that they did not ask her what she thought.

---*---

Her footsteps echoed in the corridor that she was walking down and Pansy hated the loud sounds that she was unwillingly making, she was straining her ears in hopes of being able to hear if someone else was there with her. She did not want to be taken by surprise the next time that Draco wanted to talk to her, in fact she did not want to talk to him at all but her efforts of avoiding him were pointless, if he wanted to get her alone then she understood only too well that he would be able to make it happen with little effort on his part.

Her mind wondered back to Hermione and Ginny and she sighed quietly, some times it was awkward to be working with two people who were already so close to one another and Pansy was quickly finding that she hated seeming like the odd one out. While she did not believe that her feelings for them had changed a great deal she would some times find herself wishing that when they shared a secret smile that she understood what the joke was, that she could laugh with them and not have them look at her like she had grown another head.

It seemed unfair that they could make her feel like this, like there was something wrong with her and she was different from everyone else.

"_Like you make Granger feel every time you see her" _a small voice whispered in the back of her mind so suddenly that she stopped walking and nearly fell over from the shock of it, she had no idea where that had come from but she knew that she did not like it. It would not do her any good if she started feeling like that. She did not care about Granger, she had no reason to but even as she thought it the voice was back again, laughing at her, telling her that she was lying.

Poor Pansy was so rapped up in her own thoughts for so long that she did not even notice three dark figures standing a head of her, their arms folded as they watched her with cold stairs, they had business.

"Pansy"

Her head shot up so fast that it hurt her neck slightly and the voice stopped just as suddenly as it appeared, it seemed that every part of her mind was scared at the sound of his voice. Her eyes widened, he was not alone this time. He stood there, watching her with a cold look as did Blaise and Theo. She had never thought that the other two could look as menacing as her old blond haired friend but it suddenly seemed that they could. Her heart hurt as she realised that Draco had not been lying as she had hoped, he really had gone to the others for help and they had accepted the offer without even thinking about what it mean for her.

"I think that you have something that you need to tell me?"

She nodded without even thinking about it, her heart was breaking slowly, if they had turned on her like this then she had no one, there was no longer anyone that she could talk to. There had been a time when she was friends with most of the people in her house but her friendship with Draco had soon pushed them away, they were scared of him just like she was now and she wondered how she had never seen it before it was too late.

"Well?" he asked in a harsh tone, that snapped her out of her thoughts as she suddenly realised that she was meant to answer him but her mind was till spinning and nothing seemed to make sense, her heart hurt too much to talk "what is it then?"

"List" she finally croaked "your name is on the list"

Theo smiled and turned to Draco.

"This is going to be earlier then I thought it would"

"There's more" Pansy said before she could stop herself, she had no idea why she wanted to tell them when part of her already hated herself for doing so, suddenly she felt like she was two different people that wanted different things. "A second part that you have to pass before anything can really happen"

"What is it?" Blaise asked with out hesitating and she had to stop herself from flinching at his toneless voice that he used when talking to her. There had been a time when Blaise was always the person that she could look up to, he would look after her when they were at school and help her heal after the time that she spent at home. She had told him everything about her home life and she knew all of her secrets, he had seen her weak and defenceless in ways that no one else ever had.

She had fallen in love with him.

And he was breaking her heart.

"Granger will come to you, maybe talk to you a few times or simply watch the way that you are with other people, I'm not really sure but they could do both. We have not fully decided" she added when Draco scowled at her for not knowing what was happening, Pansy hated the fact that it sounded like she was saying sorry when she had done nothing wrong to begin with."Why would she be watching me?"

"S-she would want to see what you are like with other people, its like I said the other day. We are meant to be looking for someone who is nice and kind to others. It means that you would have to…refrain from picking on other students for a while, at least when she is there"

Draco looked thoughtful for a second before he nodded and walked to her in till his face was inches from her, she panicked and stepped back bit it was no use, her back hit the stone wall like many times before and she knew that she had run out of places to hide. He had done this every time that they had talked and she knew that he was only trying to scare her into getting more information from himself.

She hated that it was working so well.

"Then what?"

"We each pick someone from our list, the person who we thought did the best and the test them to see who is the best one"

He nodded.

"Is that everything?"

Her body was shaking and she wished that Blaise or Theo would say something to make him move, something that would make him stop doing this to her but there was only silence and she knew what she was wishing for something that was never going to happen.

"Yes" she muttered while looking down "yes that's everything"

"I would of thought that you would know more about this Pansy, you did claim that you were working on it as well after all"

"I don't" she quickly replied as she started to panic "but I could find out, I did not think to ask and they did not seem forward on telling me. Granger and Weasley have it all planned out in their folder and I don't think that they want me to know too much about it at-"

"A folder?"

"What?"

"A folder Pansy" Draco practically yelled in her face and she flinched away from the sound "you said something about a bloody folder"

"Yes, yes alright, they have one with the plans in it" she whimpered with her eyes closed.

"Fine. Get it. Quickly"

She opened her eyes to find that he had already left his place in front her and was walking away, she had no idea how he moved so fast.

"Come on"

He muttered to Blaise and Theo as he walked past them, Theo followed with out given her a second look but Blaise stayed where he was while looking at her with the same cold eyes as before. He did not even look concerned with how upset she was.

"You coming?" Draco asked when he realised that is other friend had not moved.

"In a second" Blaise replied without taking his gaze off of her.

Draco looked between Pansy and Blaise before he shrugged and carried on walking, Theo and himself were gone within seconds around the corner.

The hall was silent and Blaise had no intention of moving or speaking, instead he just looked at her. Minutes pasted before Pansy opened her mouth and she had no idea what she was going to say in till it was too late.

"How could you do this to me?"

Pansy could feel the tears in her eyes but she did not bother to wipe them away, she had been doing so for as long as she could remember and she was sick of it, sick of having to hide who she was because people did not like it, sick of being what her parents wanted her to be instead of what she needed to be. Her tears seemed to have little effect on Blaise, he stood them with his arms crossed and his eyebrow raised like she had said something stupid, his face was cold and emotionless, the mask that he had mastered over the years.

"I thought that you liked me Blaise, I thought that you respected me more then this. I thought…I guess I thought too much of you, too much of what I wanted to see instead of what was really there" she let out a small sob and cursed herself and she turned her back to him, she did not want him to see her like this. She should of walked away but her feet were not allowing her to go any where, there were things that she had to know, things that had gone unanswered for too long. "Was it real? Did it mean anything to you?"

The corridor remained silent and she closed her eyes tightly, she wished that she was some where else, that her life had been different from this.

"No"

Something seemed to be gripping around her heart with such force that she was finding it hard to breath, she stayed silence for a few minutes just willing herself to breath in and out. She nodded even though she was not facing him, she still did not trust herself to talk at the moment, the tears where too thick and her throat was much to tight to say anything.

"I thought you knew" he muttered to her back in a toneless voice "I was under the impression that you understood the means of our…relationship"

She laughed lightly and her voice broke slightly as she replied.

"You mean the lack of one?"

"Yes"

Pansy scowled and wiped away her tears with determination, she was not going to allow him to see her fall apart because of him, he was not worth it. With her tears gone she looked back at him with a cold stare but he did not even flinch away from her look like others would, he was far to used to it.

"I should not of thought anything more of you Blaise. You said that you cared but it was all a lie, you did not mean anything. If you did then you would not allow him to do this to me. For him to scare me like he does and you just stand there and do nothing about it. I should have been able to see this coming really. Your all cowards when it comes to the point, you care for yourself and no one else…how very…very-"

"Slytherin of me?" he asked when she did not carry on.

"Yes" she said with a small nod. "how very Slytherin of you, but as I said I should of seen it coming. You promised me"

"Promises are made to be broken"

"Not in my mind"

"Oh really?" he asked with a sneer "and did you not promise to help Granger and Weasley with this project?"

"I am helping them"

"Yes and selling them out in the process"

Her face fell and she looked to the ground.

"That's different"

"Of course it would be in your mind, you say that I am bad when you are no better then me, he says jump and you say how high, face it, you're his puppet, not his friend"

"Are you not his puppet then?" she asked with all the hate she could manage, but even to herself her voice sounded weak and scared.

"I assure you that I am nothing of the sort"

"Then why?" she asked "if your not then why would you help him?"

"I have my reasons" he replied stiffly and she knew that he would not say anything more so it was pointless asking. There was a silence and before she could stop herself her mouth opened and she started to speak.

"I'm scared" Pansy muttered as she blinked away the tears "I don't know what to do"

"Do what you think you should do Pansy, you're a strong girl" Blaise said in a surprisingly gentle voice "its one of the things that I liked about you"

Pansy looked up in shock, he was still looking at her but his face was different, there was something in his eyes, something that she had not seen in a long time, something that she had started to believe that she would never see again, but this still held little comfort to her and her heart stung as she realised that he had said "liked", he was talking about their relationship like it was in the past. She glanced at him and sighed, she guessed that it was.

"Be yourself and fight this. I can't help you any more"

"What if it does not work?"

"It will" he said in an almost pleading voice "but it only will if you try and make it. Be strong for yourself. Be strong for me"

And then suddenly he was gone, leaving her behind.

**Please review, you'll make me smile in my time of need!**

**Haraldzidla xxx**


	6. The perfectly unexpected hero

**Hey people, sorry about taking so long to update, things have been a mess around here. I want to thank everyone who reviewed, it was so sweet of you! I got some really good feed back from people and I think that it has helped a lot!**

**Also please, if you have the time then go to my profile and vote on my pole, I am hoping to write a one shot for one of my stories and I want to know what people would like to read!**

**This chapter is for everyone who reviewed and another big thanks to zabini not zambini for helping me get this chapter up!**

**If anyone has any idea what they would like to happen then please drop me a line, I always listen to them and my story line changed all the time!**

**I DON'T OWN THE CHARACTORS, JUST THE PLOT!**

Chapter Six

The perfectly unexpected hero

Day Six

The Great Hall was alive with the sound of hundreds of students talking to one another, it was first thing in the morning and everyone was getting ready for the day ahead of them. It was a Friday and people where talking about how they were going to spend their weekends, many people where looking forward to visiting the village while others where thinking of the best way to past time of Hogwarts ground but there was one person who was not thinking about the carefree time that they had a head of them.

Hermione Granger.

Her head was resting peacefully in her hands as she stared over her friends heads at the most unlikely of people without even thinking about it, she had long eaten her breakfast and was thinking to herself about the direction that her life seemed to be going.

In theory Draco Malfoy was meant to be everything Hermione Granger hated in men and if you asked anyone then they would all agree that there is no way that she could ever try and see something more in him. He lied, cheated and sneered at her at every chance that he could get, why would she even try?

This was something that Hermione Granger had been asking her self every five minutes of the day, the time to speak to a few selected people on her list was finally here and even on the morning that she had planned to start she was still looking over her list and trying to cross some more off but for reasons she found that Draco Malfoy's name was still written there and it seemed to stand out from all of the other ones on there.

She glanced up in time to spot him leaning over and taking to his friends, while she had never spoken to them before she new the dark haired boy to be Blaise and the lighted haired boy to be Theo, she had no idea if they where anything like the Draco Malfoy that she knew but her feels for Slytherin's where too set in stone for her to think anything else. Her eyes stayed on them for the slightest second before she turned back to the matter at hand: Draco Malfoy. He looked the same as always, his blond hair was hanging around his face slightly and she marvelled at how much better he looked with slightly longer hair. A few odd pieces where hanging in front of his face and she wanted to be there next to him, to laugh and be able to move the stray hair so that she could look into his piercing blue eyes better.

"Hermione?"

She hated him in most ways and while it made no sense for her to even be thinking about him like this there was still a voice in the back of her mind that was asking her, practically begging even that she tried to look closer.

"Hermione?"

He could be a good person, maybe he just never had the chance to show it, that's all.

"Oi, Hermione!"

Hermione gasped slightly as she was pulled out of her dream like state with a small push in the arm, she blinked twice before looking across the table at Harry and Ron and bringing them back into focus. They both frowned at her and she forced a smile on her face while hoping that they did not notice where she had been looking.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked with a side glance at Ron "You seem slightly out of it lately""I'm fine" she quickly replied and cursed herself, after everything that she had done you would think that she would be able to lie convincingly by now "just got a lot of work to do lately, trying to work out how to get it all done"

"Yeah, we noticed" Ron muttered and then cared on speaking at a normal level "we hardly see you anymore, I think you have been spending more time with my sister then us at the moment."Hermione felt a pang of guilt hit her as she realised how little she had seen of her two best friends, it was true that it had only been a few days since this project had been set in action but considering that she used to spend every second that she could with her two best friends she could understand how it could seem longer to them.

"I'm sorry" she said honestly "I have just been so busy lately, I will be in the library after lessons for a while but then I'm free and all yours, I promise."

Harry smiled and nodded and Ron was already back to eating his breakfast with full force and Hermione smiled in affection at them both, she loved them like they where her very own brothers and she promised herself that she was not going to allow this to get in the way of their friendship. Not even Voldemort could keep them from one another and she could not see how anything was going to.

---*---

"Colin Creevey?" Pansy asked in horror "you have to be joking Ginny"

"What's wrong with him?"

Pansy frowned and carried on looking at Ginny like there was something that she was missing and by the way Hermione was frowning it seemed that the two girls had finally found something that they could agree on.

"I think the question that you should be asking is what is right about that boy, he goes around all days taking pictures of nothing."

"Yes, that maybe true but I tend to look at a persons more…artistic side then anything else. I checked and he is everything that we need kind, caring, always helping others-"

"Oh the mystery! The boys goes around telling everyone about himself, the only thing I ever wonder about him is why he doesn't shut the hell up"

Ginny scowled.

"Like you got anyone better Pansy"

"I did as a matter of fact" Pansy smirked "no one as good as what you would find in Slytherin of course but someone who at least passes all of the points that was asked of me"

Ginny looked at the piece of paper in front of Pansy that had the name of her "mystery man" on it and her fingers twitched, she knew that Pansy was not going to tell her and she was wondering if she could snatch it off of her before Pansy would notice. The black haired girl's smirk widened as she picked the paper up and placed it calmly in her pocket.

"I think I will keep hold of this for the time being"

"I think we should know"

"It's **my** name"

"**Our** project"

Hermione sighed and covered up her ears, these two were doing her head in and a simple meeting seemed to be turning into a full blown fight. Hermione had never been one to get in with Pansy but she never had any idea that Ginny hated her as much as she did and also no idea why, by law Gryffindor's and Slytherin's hated one another but this seemed to be something else of its own, although Hermione could not help but notice that they had started call each other by their first names without even thinking about it. While this project was never going to make them friends there was still a chance that something besides the perfect guy could come out of it.

"What does money have anything to do with this?!"

"Nothing to you of course, god knows that your family does not have any"

"Your talking off subject" Ginny growled, Pansy opened her mouth to reply when Hermione stood up and stuffed her book back into her bag, the two other girls watched her with their mouths open slightly in confusion and it was not in till she reached the door and pulled it open that Ginny found herself asking:

"Hermione where are you going?"

"Any where to get away from the noise of you two fighting, when you decide to spend this time talking instead of yelling let me know!"

The door slammed shut as she left and Pansy and Ginny remained motionless for a few seconds before they turned to one another with scowls, each one of them believed it to be the others fault.

"I hate you"

"Right back at you ginger biscuit"

---*---

Hermione's temper had still not improved as she walked back to the common room, she had hoped that things would get better as time passed but it seemed that it was never going to happen. She was all too aware how personal this project was becoming to her and she cursed herself for even thinking of doing it, they could of done something simple and had it done within a couple of days.

She was walking as fast as her feet could carry her through the empty corridors, all she wanted right now was to lay down for a while. Dinner would not be ready yet and she was hoping to have some alone time to allow her temper to calm down before she had to face Harry and Ron, they were the last people that she wanted to take her temper out on. They had been right this morning and she was determined to spend more time with them.

"Granger, all alone are we?"

Hermione stopped and looked behind her to find the two boys that Draco had been speaking to this morning standing there, their wands out and smirks on their faces, it would seem that she had been right in thinking of them as nothing other then Slytherin's. They stood like all of the others did with pride and grace that they had not earned.

"I'm busy right now" she said coldly "I don't have time for your stupid games"

While trying not to think too hard about the wands that were in their hands she turned back around and started to walk away, she had already had fights with enough Slytherin's this week she did not need another one added to her list. She let out a breath on her third step and smiled, if they were going to stop her then they would of done so before now, her mind relaxed too soon and her breath left her as someone grabbed her hard on the arm and spun her around. Her bag started to slip from her left shoulder and she reached for her wand with her right hand and she was seconds away from taking hold of it when the a different person pushed hard against her chest and she smacked hard into a wall behind her. Her heart was racing as she heard a small clatter in the silent corridor and her heart sank with dismay as she realised that it was her wand falling out her pocket and rolling across the cold stone floor.

Someone laughed and Hermione looked up to that it was the boy she knew to be Theo, a pain shot up her back and she groaned in defeat as her body slid down the wall and she sat down, there was no way that she could take both of them on with out a wand, another shot of pain and she started to wonder how hard they had pushed her.

"Did you really think that you could walk away from us Mudblood?" Blaise asked in a calm voice that made her shiver, they acting like they were dong nothing wrong, like this happened every day.

"Thinks she is better then us, doesn't she?" Theo sneered "I think we will have to show her the difference, don't you?"

Blaise smiled and nodded while Hermione closer her eyes and moved her self closer to the wall, almost like she hoped that the would no longer see her, like she could get away from their wands and the dark magic that they were going to do on her. She wished that Ron and Harry were there with her, they would never let any thing bad happen to her and she trusted her life with them, there was no one else who would stand up for her-

"I would suggest that you lower your wands"

Her eyes snapped open and Hermione turned her head so fast to see who had spoken that it hurt her neck but she found that she could no longer feel it clearly, her mind was working too fast for her to feel anything right now, she knew that voice better then she thought she did and her eyes widened as she realised that he really was standing there, his wand pointed not at her but at the two boys standing in front of her.

He was protecting her.

Theo and Blaise looked at one another in what Hermione believed to be worry before they nodded as one and to her relief lowered their wands and put them back into their robes, Blaise's expression changed from worry to a nervous smile.

"Draco, good to see you, look we were just messing around is all, we did not mean anything-""I told you to leave her alone" Draco growled and Hermione's eyes widened.

He looked mad because someone had hurt her.

No, forget that.

He looked livid.

"We were just messing" Theo quickly said "we didn't hurt her, see she is fine" he moved next to her and took hold of her arm before yanking her up to her feet, Hermione let out a whimper at yet another pain in her back, her cry of pain made Draco make a sound that sounded like a growl and Theo let go like he had burned her.

"Leave now, I'll deal with you later"

Theo and Blaise quickly nodded and almost ran from sight, Draco was at her side with in seconds.

"Are you alright? Did they hex you? What hurts?"

Hermione blinked at the worry in his voice, he was meant to hate her.

"I'm fine" she muttered "just took me by surprise was all"

"We should take you to the hospital wing" Draco said as he picked up her wand, for a second she thought that this had been a trick when he turned back to her with a small smile and handed her the wand in his hand.

"Thanks" Hermione muttered "and don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Just need to lay down for a while"

"Do you need help walking there?"

"No, thank you"

"Oh, alright then" he replied and it almost sounded like he was disappointed "Well I'll see you later then Granger"

"Yeah" she said as she watched him smile and walk away "see you later Malfoy"Hermione had no idea how long she stood there for but when she did reach her bedroom she started to wonder what had happened that day. He hated her and yet he had stood there and gotten mad when someone had hurt her, he had been a hero and saved her.

He had been her unlikely hero.

Finally Hermione's eyes closed and she fell into a deep sleep where she dreamed of a blond haired boy with the darkest blue eyes.

---*---

"So how far do you think that he is going to take this?"

Blaise glanced over the top of his book and watching Theo calmly for a second before raising it once more, he did not even have to ask what he was talking about, he knew that it would be the same thing that they had been thinking about since Draco came to talk to them, his mind wondered to Pansy and he frowned before pushing her to the back of his mind. He had been avoiding thinking about her for a long time now and he was sure that he could do it for even longer if he wanted to.

"I imagine that he will take it as far as he can, you know him anything to have a laugh at someone that he dislikes"

Theo nodded thoughtfully and leaned back onto his bed, dinner had already started down stairs but both boys had not even thought about leaving their room, they had too much to think about and looking at all of the smiling people seemed too much for them to handle, it made them think about everything that they could lose and when it came to Pansy everything that they already had. Guilt had been following them around every where that they went and every time that they closed their eyes her crushed face seemed to be all that they could see, the saddest thing was knowing if they could do it again then they would not change a thing.

They had even gone as far as to attack Granger today in order to make Draco look like some kind of hero, it was true that they did not like the girl but it still didn't mean that they wanted to

hurt her.

They had done what was needed and in the long run it would work out.

It had to.

"What if someone finds out?"

"Then his plan does not work, does it?"

Theo did not take his ends off the top of his bed and tried to keep his voice under control as he spoke next, it would not do any good to show how worried he was growing lately.

"You know that's not what I'm talking about"

Blaise visibly tensed and his grip on the book doubles as he reminded him self to keep him temper in check, both of them had been thinking about the same thing in the back of their minds but it would seem Blaise was better at trying to forget than his friend.

"I don't think that now is really the time to be talking about this"

"It never is with you" Theo said in a tired voice "but we need to at some point, this is never going to work if we don't work together on this"

"And we will" Blaise said through gritted teeth "just not now"

"When then?"

"Later"

"Blaise, please…I'm worried"

His temper suddenly snapped at his friends words and Blaise snapped his book shut before throwing it down on the bed.

"And what? You think that I'm not as well? Do you think that I don't wonder what is going to happen to us after its all over?"

"That's not what I meant, I'm just thinking…is this really something that we have to do?"

"Having second thoughts are we?" Blaise almost shouted "bit late for things like that don't you think?"

"Is it?"

Blaise sighed and ran his hand over his face, it was still early but he was suddenly feeling horribly tired.

"Yes, is it and even if it was not would you really want to turn your back on this? To be someone that you hate and promised yourself that you never would be? We have a choice and we made it, it is something to be proud of, not hang your head in shame like you are"

"You sound like your father"

"You say that like it's a bad thing"

"It is!" Theo snapped "I think the last thing that we need is to sound like them right now"Blaise took a calming breath before turning away from his friend, he had not meant to get into a fight with one of the only true friends that he had left but his desire to not talk about the problems that were plaguing his mind was too great for him.

"I'm going to dinner"

"I still think-"

The door of the room slammed shut before he could finish and Theo sighed in defeat, he had wanted nothing more for people to treat him like an adult and now that the time and chance was here he found he wanted nothing more then to be a child. He was only sixteen and in anyone's option that was much to young to have to think about these kinds of things. There was a war coming and it was finally time to pick what side you where going to be on.

Without thinking about dinner he climbed into bed still fully dressed and waiting for sleep to over come him, the first good thing that had happened all day

**Hope you all liked it, please review if you can!**

**Haraldzidla xxx**


	7. Perfect liar

**Hey sorry this chapter was up so late, things have been really bust at the moment and right now is not the best of times. Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter.**

**Also please go and vote on my poll if you have the time, I have three people's vote in total and I was hoping for a count up of ten before I made up my mind.**

**I DO NOT OWN**

Chapter Seven

Perfect Liar

Day Seven

The fire in the Gryffindor common room was slowly starting to die and only a few embers remained in the much used fire, the sun had long gone down and while many students were already tucked away in bed two boys remained there, sitting in the two chairs closest to the fire like always. The only difference from most night's was the third person missing from the trio and her lack of presence seemed to be weighting on both of their minds.

She had promised this morning that she was going to be here and even though it was late and all hope was almost lost of her not showing they carried on sitting there, looking into the fire and wishing that they were wrong in thinking that she had forgotten them once again.

Harry and Ron had always be good friends since there first day at the school and while it had taken them some time to warm to Hermione Granger it still felt like something was wrong when she was not there, they had been best friends for a long time and they did every thing least they used to.

A loud chime was suddenly echoing through the castle and it sounded louder then it ever had done before, ringing through their minds and screaming the time to them. Harry sighed and turned to Ron to find that he had the same look on his face as his friend: defeat.

It was one o'clock in the morning and both of them knew that Hermione was not going to be showing up any time soon like she had promised.

"Maybe she forgot?" Ron suggest quietly but they both knew that it was a lie and even if it was not it seemed to be all she was doing lately.

"Yeah" Harry muttered "Maybe she did"

As one they both stood up and walked to their room just as the last light from the fire flickered off, that night, as they laid in bed they tried to push the truth of their now failing friendship the the back of their minds. It did not feel like Hermione had just forgotten to meet felt like she had forgotten _them._

---*---

Hermione Granger rolled over and groaned softly, there was a small pain still left in her back and it seemed that rolling over had been a very bad idea. Memories of the day before came rushing back and she sighed, even after thinking about it for hours on end she was still no closer to knowing what she should do then she had been the night before. He had saved her and she had no idea why, had she been right in thinking that there was something in him other then hate?She had never thought much of Theo and Blaise but their behaviour last night had still shocked her, while they had not come across as the most open of people she was pained to see that they could hurt someone so freely and no feel a piece of remorse for it after. Hermione laid in bed for another half an hour while she thought ever thing through and there was a small voice in the back of her mind, telling her that she had forgotten something.

Against her better judgement Hermione pulled her bed covers from her protesting body and sat up, she knew that if she did not get up now then she never would. Her room was empty and her eyes widened as she realised that it was half ten already, the other girls would be down at breakfast by now. She quickly made her way around the room to collect her things, she never slept late even on the weekend and she felt slightly annoyed that no one had thought to wake her. It was not in till she had fully dressed, brushed her hair and teeth that her body froze in horror as she realised what she had forgotten.

_Harry and Ron._

Her jacket laid forgotten on her bed as she ran out of her room and pulled her shoes onto her feet, she could not believe that she had done this again. They had said that she was always busy and her promise to spend last night with them seemed to make up for it, she did not even want to think about how they must be feeling now, how mad that they were going to be at her.

She finally came to a halt at the bottom of the stairs and looked around, Harry and Ron would always wait for her in the mornings before going down…her heart sank and she looked around the room and saw many faces but none that belonged to the two people that she wanted to see. Her eyes rested on Seamus and Dean and she sighed before making her way over to them, it seemed odd that she had never really spoken to them when they shared a room with Harry and Ron.

Dean was laughing at something that Seamus had just said but stopped when he noticed Hermione walking over to them, his expression changed to cold one and she almost stopped walking from the shock of it, they had never really spoken and therefore she had no idea why he was being so cold.

"Hey" she said in a bright voice when she reached them but their expressions remained indifferent.

"Hello" Dean said coldly but Seamus said nothing and merely looked around the common room like she had not spoken "is there something that we can help you with?"

"Er-yes" Hermione replied as she attempted to sound calm, she needed to know where Harry and Ron too much to risk losing her temper "I was wondering if you have been Harry and Ron this morning, they normally-"

"They went down to breakfast" Dean quickly replied.

"Oh right, well that's odd because-"

"Why?" Seamus snapped "because you finally started thinking about them for a change?"

Hermione recoiled from his harsh tone and frowned.

"I always think about then, thank you" she said in a cold tone.

"Oh really?" Seamus asked with a slight sneer on his face "well from the way that they were talking last night you would think that you never saw them, let alone that you are meant to be their best friend"

Her heart sank and she closed her eyes for a second before finally asking in a shacking voice:

"They talked about me?"

"Yeah, they did" Dean replied and suddenly Hermione knew what the cold look was for, it seemed that her friends had been talking about her absence away from them more then she had thought, her and Ron had had many fights before and even Harry and herself had been known to fall out from time to time but she had a horrible feeling that this was something completely different.

"Okay" Hermione said as she walked away and to the door of the common room "thank you"

Hermione added before walking out but Hermione had the feeling that they were no longer listening to her.

---*---

"Malfoy!"

Draco turned around at the sound of his voice being called and tried to hide the look of satisfaction from his face as Hermione walked closer, he had a feeling that she would be seeing him soon. She came to a stop in front of him and he smirked at the look on her face, the closer she had been getting to him the more unsure she looked with every step.

"Is there something I can help you with?" he finally asked when she remained silent.

"Yes" she replied while taking a deep breath "I just wanted to say…well thank you. It was good of you to do what you did the other day. You know saving me and everything, I really thought they were going to hurt me and they did kind of, my back has been hurting but well…" Hermione came to a sudden stop and she felt her cheeks grow warmer as she realised that she had been talking non stop, what was wrong with her? "well thank you"

Draco smiled while trying to hold back another smirk, he found that he liked Granger when she blushed, it was very unlike her.

"Think nothing of it" he answered causally "I could not simply leave you there"

Hermione opened her mouth to remind him that he could of but soon shut it, there was no use in fighting the point, it would only annoy him.

"Well I was thinking that I could buy you a drink the next time we go to the village, next weekend, as a thank you" Hermione said before she could stop herself, she had no idea where the idea had came from and she suddenly wished that the floor would swallow her whole, asking him out had not been part of the plan. "If you don't want to then I would understand" she quickly added.

Draco let out the breath that he did not know he had been holding and tried to think of something to say, he could not remember the last time that he had been speechless because of something that someone had said to him. When he had come up with this plan he did not even think that he would have to be seen with Granger out side of the school…if news got back to his father about this then there would be hell to pay, even if the whole thing was a lie or not. Was making an idiot of Granger worth it? He watched her nervous expression for a moment longer before he knew the answer, anything would be worth it to see Granger in some form of pain.

"I would love to" he replied while trying to stop himself from cringing, there was something about this that seemed so wrong.

Her cheeks turned impossibly red and she nodded.

"Good well…I'll talk to you closer to the time then?"

Draco simply nodded, he did not trust himself to speak right now or he might find a way to get out of this. The things that he did to keep his family name in place.

She smiled weakly before turning back around and walking to the Great Hall, she did not even want to think about what she had just done. Her mind wondered back to Harry and Ron and she frowned, even if they did make up today then she had no idea what they were going to do of they ever found out that she had a date with Draco Malfoy.

Her heart started beating faster and she wondered whole she got herself into these things.

A date.

With Draco Malfoy.

Something was wrong with the world.

---*---

Pansy pretended to look down at her own notes while darting her gaze to the folder that Ginny was leaning over every few seconds. Getting the folder like Draco had asked was going to be harder than she first thought as it appeared that the little red head never left it's side for even a second. If Pansy had not been planning on stealing it then she may of felt slightly insulted, while Ginny had no idea that Pansy was planning against then it would seem that she did not trust her as much as she would of liked as well.

True to her word Hermione had not shown up this morning and the two girls could only guess the reason behind it, she had not been joking when she said that she would not return in till they had stopped fighting and while they had no desire to be good friends the weight of not having Hermione there seemed to be weighing over them greatly, she always seemed to know what to do and both of them felt slightly lost with out her there to guide them. This whole thing had been her idea after all, not theirs.

For the first time Ginny did not bother to ask who Pansy has picked for the project and for this she was thankful because in truth she had still not picked someone, granted there were plenty of people for her to pick but none that she wanted to name as the perfect guy. In fact to her not one of them was even close to the kind of person that she thought was perfect, she could see deep dark hair, a mysterious smirk and the darkest eyes, like a tunnel that had the brightest light at the end of it.

Pansy sighed in annoyance and Ginny shot her a glance that she ignored before carrying on with her work, she need to stop thinking about him, he was not perfect.

Bt maybe that's not what she wanted, maybe she wanted someone who had things wrong with them, things that she could love him for.

Pansy looked at the clock and bit her lip, she only has five minutes left before she missed her chance again. She picked up her pen and looked at the ink for a second before dipping it into the ink tub with more force then needed, the tub wobbled slightly before Pansy gave it one more quick push and if fell to the table. Ginny let out a small yell of shock as the ink flew every were and small pieces landed on her face and notebook.

"You did that on purpose!" she yelled angrily.

"I did not" Pansy lied easily "It slipped, quick get a cloth, everything will be ruined"

Ginny sighed in defeat as she realised that Pansy was right and just like the black haired girl had hoped she would ran to the side table in order to get a fresh cloth, her mind was so set on her spoiled work that using magic did not even come to mind. With a true smirk that she had not used in some time Pansy picked up her bag and quickly picked out another folder that was the same shade of pink as Ginny's, she knew that she did not have much time ahead of her before Ginny returned and noticed something was different. With quicker reflexes then she knew she had she muttered a small spell and sighed in relief as words started to flow onto the pages of her folder, within seconds the job was done and with a small snap the folder closed and was placed back into her bag.

"Well?" Ginny asked in anger as she ran back to the table and started to mope up the ink "are you not going to help me?"

"Of course" Pansy smirked as she got up to get a cloth of her own "I owe you a thank you anyway" she muttered to herself in satisfaction, she would not have to face Draco's anger again tonight.

---*---

"Well?" Draco asked as soon as Pansy stepped in the common room "did you get it?"

Without a word and no expression she reached into her bag and pulled out the folder that she had been waiting for while trying not to show how pleased she was with herself. The feeling of stealing was not something that she was enjoying but the knowledge of knowing that they would be leaving her alone tonight was the only thing that she needed to make her feel better about the whole thing. As she handed it over she kept her eyes low and tried not to look at the two people sitting with him, the feeling of their betrayal was still stinging too much.

"Well done" Draco muttered and Pansy held back a scowl at the thought of being talked to like a dog, she wondered slightly if he had ever had a piece of respect for her. "I'm pleased" he added when she did not move and she realised that it was her queue to leave.

"Good" she muttered quietly. And then it happened, she had been free to walk away, to go to bed and hide under the covers from the people who used to be her friends.

But she had to open her mouth.

"What are you going to do to them?"

Draco had already turned away from Pansy and he seemed to freeze at the sound of her voice, he was as shocked as she was that she had spoken. He turned slowly to look at her and Blaise and Theo shared an unreadable glance at one another, she did not even want to think about what that meant, she did not even think that she could move from the stare Draco was giving her. There was something about it that seemed so…dark.

She did not like it.

"Who?" Draco asked with a small laugh "Granger and Weasley?

Pansy lowered her head and nodded to the floor, she hated the fact that she had been reduced to this. Once upon a time there was a black haired and strong minded girl who took no trouble from any one and could make people freeze in terror just from one look and yet here she was; looking down at the floor and shaking like some small little girl and being bullied by the people that she once thought had been her friends.

She suddenly wondered where everything had gone wrong in her life.

"Yeah" she muttered when he did not say anything "it doesn't matter really, it's not like I care or anything. They are nothing to me, I was just wondering if they are in any danger or-"

"If you do not care for them then I don't see that this has anything to do with you or why you would wish to know" he replied coldly as he turned away from her once more "in fact I don't think its any of your business"

Pansy was used to Draco's cold tone but it still felt like something was holding tightly around her heart every time, there was an edge to it thought, something that she had never felt before now.

It was not in till she was laying in bed that night and looking up at the ceiling that she realised what that horrible feeling was: fear.

Fear for the two people she hated and what she had done to them.

**Hope you liked it, please review!**


	8. Perfectly guilty

**Thank you for reviewing everyone, I hope you all like the chapter! I got my first ever flame the other day in the form of a review for "The Down Fall of Draco Malfoy", it would seem my plots are good but the way I tell them is not, was slightly shocked at getting one but hey, it happens : D**

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**I OWN NOTHING BUT THE PLOT**

Chapter Eight

Perfectly guilty

Hermione Granger held onto her books tightly as she ran threw the crowd and attempted to catch up with the two boys that she had been calling who once again had not waited for her this morning. She knew that they were still mad at her and while she was hoping that she could find some kind of way to make up for it, things were not looking very likely at the moment. They were being colder towards her then they had ever been before and this seemed scarily different from the normal fights that she found herself having with Ron all the time, this time around she understood all too well that she did not have Harry standing there next to her to tell he that everything was going to be alright.

This time he was mad at her as well.

She finally reached them and smiled brightly in hope that they would return the favour but they simply carried on walking like they always did, still, she thought bitterly to herself, at least they are not asking me to leave them alone today, it looks like things are improving slightly.

She walked with them and tried to keep the smile on her face in hopes that if she acted like there was nothing wrong then maybe they would wake up one morning soon and forget that they had ever been mad at her, something that had happened between Ron and herself many times in the past. She spent her time walking thinking about Ginny and Pansy and almost frowned because of it, she had missed the last meeting and had a feeling that she was not going to show up tonight as well, she had a lot to make up for when it came to her two best friends. She had been completely serious when threatening not to come back if they did not stop fighting but that still did not stop her from thinking about it the whole time, she wondered what they had planned, if everything was going well and how far they had gotten without her being there.

She hated the fact that this project was starting to mean so much to her but at the same time she felt like it was something that she had to do, that needed to be done now or she would always sit back and wonder what could of happened to her life if she had token the chance and tried to make a go of this. She bit her lip as she remembered what she had said to Draco Malfoy just the day before, the thought of going on a date with Draco Malfoy seemed like something that could be placed in someone else's life and still she knew that she was still going to go, even if Ron and Harry ended up killing her for it she did still did not think that anything was going to stop her from going.

She had to know.

Even if he was Draco Malfoy when it came to something like this she would of risked needed this.

---*---

Fear and guilt turned out to be two emotions that Pansy did not like feeling, they were new and not something that she had been expecting to feel. She was a Slytherin after all, were they not meant to be unfeeling people? She should not care about them and yet…and yet while she hated everything about them, from their stupid hair right down to their shoes there was still something there, a small voice in the back of her mind, whispering to her that what she had done was wrong, that she should undo it.

Her breakfast laid forgotten in front of her as she folded her arms and glared at the two girls in question, it had to be their fault, they had done something to her, she was convinced of it. Why else would she feel like this? Why else would she feel like she had had done something wrong when she owed them nothing-they had never been nice to her before and it was all their fault that this was happening anyway. This was all Grangers idea and she had never promised to go along with everything that they said after all.

She was doing nothing wrong.

_Liar._

Pansy flinched at the sound of the small voice in her head and tried to drown it out with the sounds of students talking around her, her new found emotions had kept her up last night and her eyes felt tired and kept on threatening to close-something that should not be happening when she had her weekend to look forward to. Today everyone was going to the village and she had been looking forward to it for weeks, anything to get away from this stupid castle and over annoying teachers.

She tore her gaze away from Granger and Weasley and looked down the table to her three old friends, huddled together and whispering quietly to one another in hushed voices with smirks on their faces that made her shiver just by looking at them, they were up to something. There had been a time when she would be sitting with them, sitting in the middle and laughing with them about their fellow students while sneering at anyone who looked their way for two long.

But now they sneered at _her._

She turned her head quickly and lowered it to her plate before closing her eyes and sighing deeply, every thing like that seemed like such a long time ago, so long that she had to try hard to remember what it had been like to not be scared all the time.

Is this what others had felt when they did that to them? Had they been as scared as she was now?

"_And you did that to them"_

Her eyes were damp and they widened, it had been so long since she had cried and now was not the time, while taking a calming breath and she turned and looked back at the three boys for a second, if she wanted the voice to go away then there was only one thing she could do.

She had to get the book back. The book that was currently in the bedroom of one Draco Malfoy.

This was not going to be easy.

Her mind wondered to the trip to the village that was taking place that day and she groaned in understanding of what she was going to have to do hit her with full force. Draco would not miss the trip today- he never had. Blaise and Theo were very much the same and that could only mean one thing.

Today their room was going to be empty for a good number of hours and while it would mean missing today she would have plenty of time to get the book, leave a look alike there and then make her escape but even so something felt wrong.

Her luck had never been good before and she prayed that today was going to be different.

She prayed that this would work but most of all she wished that the voices would go away.

_Cheat._

_Coward._

_Liar._

_Bully._

She groaned once again and hit her head on the table while ignoring the strange looks she was getting, today was going to be a long day.

---*---

Hermione sat down and started to eat breakfast, she was in no way hungry but at the same time she understood that she needed something to do right now. Harry and Ron had still not said a word to her this morning and no matter how hard she had been trying they did not even seem to be making eye contact with her. This fight seemed scarily different from all of the others that she had had with them and while she may know a great deal when it came to magic she was never that good at fighting with people.

As soon as they has sat down both Harry and Ron had filled up their plates and turned away from her to talk to Dean and she suddenly felt very small and alone as they cut her out of their conversation and acted like she was not even there.

Finally, after twenty minutes of eating non-stop and hoping that they would notice her she sighed and put down her fork before picking up her books and making her way out of the hall. She had a feeling that they would not be going down to the village with her today but that did not mean that she could not go, it was sunny for the first time in days and she would not miss out on it because they were acting like a heavy heart Hermione Granger walked down to the village.

Alone.

---*---

Pansy's P.O.V

I looked at the stair case before me and frowned, this whole thing was turning out to be harder then I ever thought it was going to be. My heart was racing and I knew what was stopping me from walking forward and up those stairs, the thoughts of what Draco would do to me if he found me was all I could think about. He would be mad and he would yell, he would scream and I could see it now, him raising his fist and getting closer…

I flinched at the thought, he would never hurt me, I repeated to myself, he would never hurt me. He had never done so before and I did not think that he would start now, I would be scared but I could face that, I would face that for them.

Before I could think better of it I was running up the stairs, my head held high and my mind set, this was something that I knew I had to do or I would never be able to live with myself. I hated that I was doing it for them, for people on the light side but this meant nothing. I would never turn over to their side, I just needed to do this for girls every where. No more would I be held back because I was scared, no more would I allow him to make me feel like I was nothing but trouble, I was better then that but most of all I was better then him.

His room was spotless and I frowned, it had not been what I was expecting and completely different from the handful amount of times that I had been in there over the passed years. It would seem that everything about him had changed, right down to the way that he kept his room, I thought back to the messy little boy that I had known and allowed myself to smile for a second. He was turning more and more like his father then I liked.

I moved over to the closest bed that I knew to be Draco's and leaned down to look under the bed, the book was going to be around here some where.

After a few minutes of looking I sighed, I was hoping to be out of her by now. With slight determination I pulled open the first draw next to his bed and smiled with relief at the sighed of the pink folder, tucked away neatly in the draw with nothing else.

And then it happened.

---*---

"I wonder why he changed his mind last minute"

Draco shrugged and carried on walking without really taking anything that was being said in, he did not care about Blaise reasons for staying behind today, he had other things to be thinking about. Much bigger things. Theo was almost jogging to keep pace with his friend but did nor dare ask where they were going, Draco always had his reasons for the things he did and he did not like to be questioned, something that Theo and his fellow class mates had had to find out the hard way.

They walked for another ten minutes, all the while passing joke shops, sweet shops and all of the funniest parts of the village in till Draco finally stopped in his tracks, not realising soon enough Theo bumped into him and cringed away from the snappy insult that he had been used to expecting but it almost seemed as though Draco was taking no notice.

"There" Draco muttered so lightly that Theo almost did not hear him "there she is"

Confused the dark haired boy looked in the direction of his friends gaze and could of almost sighed as he realised what his day away from the school was going to be spent doing. Hermione Granger was sitting across the road in a small coffee shop. Her legs were folded lightly and a small light blue book was being held in her right hand while she drank what looked like tea with the other, her light brown hair was simply pulled back in a pony tale and though she was wearing simple muggle clothing she did not look that bad to either of the two boys watching her.

"So" Theo said as turned back to his friend "where do you think that Potter and Weasley are today? Don't the three of them normally hang off of one another like a bad smell?"

Draco frowned and simply nodded at his friend, he did have a point, while he had been looking for a chance for Granger to see him today he did not think that he would be lucky enough to find her without her two best friends who did not normally leave her side.

"Maybe they stayed behind today?" Theo suggested when Draco did not say anything.

"Perhaps, or they could be fighting once again"

Without another word he ignored his friends confused look as he turned around and walked away from the person that he had just been trying so hard to find for the last half an hour, for some reason that was unknown to even himself he did not feel like talking to her while she looked so sad. There was nothing he could say to make her feel better, he was never good with emotional girls-especially emotional Gryffindor girls.

---*---

"Don't do it"

Pansy spun around at the sound of the voice that she knew so well and her heart was beating wildly in her chest as her eyes locked with his. He was standing there, leaning against the wall with his hands tucked neatly in his pockets with a calm look on his face that did not seem to match the different emotions that where flashing in his eyes as he watched her. She opened her mouth wordlessly as she searched for something to say - to think of some excuse to why she would in here but when none came she sighed, looking down at the floor in shame, weather it was because of being caught or her reasons for doing it she was not sure.

"Why not?" she asked after a moment passed "we both know that what he is doing, what you are all doing is wrong. Some one is going to get hurt here, even if I have no idea what you all think the out come of this is going to be I can tell that there is nothing good about this. It's wrong"

He laughed coldly but she could not hear any humour in his voice.

"Since when have you cared about what's right and wrong?"

"I don't know" she replied truthfully as she finally looked up at him. She noted that his eyes looked darker when he was mad but even with his sharp gaze she did not feel scared any more, not of him "I don't know when I started caring about it, all I know is that I do, I'm trying not to think about it really. All I know is that I have to stop it, before it goes too far"

"Really?" he asked and she had to bite back a remark as she noticed the amusement in his voice "May I ask what makes you think that I'll allow you to do this, I could go and get Draco right now and have him deal with you himself, no need for me to get my hands dirty"

"You could" she replied slowly as she tried to keep her voice under control, she did not want him to know how much he was hurting her, she would not let him do that to her "but for some reason I really don't think that your going to. I think your going to let me pick up that folder, replace it with the one I'm holding and then allow me to walk right past you, all the while not even thinking about telling Draco what you have seen"

Blaise looked as shocked as she felt herself and she had to stop herself from laughing, suddenly everything felt so simple, she could do this if she wanted to and while she could never be able to completely save Hermione and Ginny she could at least slow Draco's progress. Blaise tilted his head to one side and looked at her like he was seeing her for the first time with a slightly looked of awe in his eyes, something that she had not seen in a great deal of time and even now, when she was thinking about what hex's she might have to use of him, it still made her heart flutter slightly and she could feel her cheeks redden from his gaze.

"Why am I going to let you do that?" he finally asked.

"Because I know Blaise" she replied while trying to keep the panic from her voice, she had no idea what she was doing, but from the way his eyes widened slightly she hoped that it was working. "I know all about what you have been doing and I swear if you don't let me leave and even think about telling anyone that this was me then everyone will know about it"

There was a silence and he looked her up and down with a confused look on her face, almost like he was trying to solve a puzzle that he could not figure out, he finally stopped and looked at her eyes and held her gaze for what seemed like a life time before he smirked, but this one seemed weaker then the last, almost like it was forced onto his face unwillingly.

"Your bluffing"

Pansy looked back down at the open draw and the folder that she seemed to need so badly for reasons that she did not even know, she was not going to get anything from this and Hermione and Ginny would never even know that she had done anything, there was no need…the two girls faces came to her mind and she thought about them…about what Draco was going to do…what she was going to have to see happen. Her mind snapped back to the present and she lifted her head to scowl at Blaise. Without taking her eyes off of him she picked up the folder and replaced it with the one that she had been holding, he looked speechless as she picked up her bag from the floor and walked right passed him.

"I never bluff about something that I want Blaise, you should know that"

With a sudden bust of energy she pushed pasted him and down the stone steps to freedom, it was not in till she was at the bottom of them that he called after her:

"Who's side are you on Parkinson?"

"The same side as I always have been" she called back "but this is nothing to do with that, it's a girl thing, not the people I'm doing it for"

Before he could answer she was running to the door, wanting to get away from him, she wondered around the grounds that night and thought about what he had said, she knew whose side she wanted but this was a girl thing, not personal.

She hated Hermione and Ginny…Granger and Weasley.

Really…she does.

**Loved it or hated it? Please let me know!**

**Haraldzidla xx**


	9. Perfectly Scared

**Another chapter, thank you to everyone who reviewed, it means so much to hear what you all think!**

**I OWN NOTHING BUT THE PLOT!**

Chapter Nine

Perfectly scared

Day Nine.

Ginny Weasley and Pansy Parkinson were both sitting down at a large table, their arms crossed and frowns on their faces as they looked anywhere other then at each other. It was lunch time and like always they had arrived on time for the meeting that they found they did not want to go to, it was five minutes passed the hour and they where still hoping that Hermione was going to show up today, they had soon come to realise that working with one another without her was not turning out to be the best thing. Even the smallest of problems made the two girls fight uncontrollably and the only person who would be able to stop them was Hermione.

Ginny sighed for the third time and Pansy sent her a harsh glare that she ignored, they were already getting on each others nerves without even speaking.

"Do you think she'll come?" Ginny asked when she could not longer stand the silence.

"How am I meant to know?" Pansy scoffed "What do you think I am, a mind reader?"

They held one another's gaze for a second and Pansy raised hey eyebrows, daring her to say something back but Ginny just sighed once more and looked away while knowing that it would just end up with them having another one of their big fights.

She frowned as she thought about Pansy and the years that they had known one another, she was not really sure when they had started to dislike one another and what reasons there were behind it but she understood all to well what kind of person the black haired girl was. She was nothing but trouble and would never do a good thing for anyone unless she thought that she could get something out of it, and even then she thought that it would be hard for her.

Pansy Parkinson was all about self loving and nothing else.

"Come on" Pansy reluctantly said ten minutes later "She is not coming, we may as well get something done today"

Ginny nodded slightly before reaching into her bag and taking out the one thing that Pansy had been waiting to see: the folder.

"You know, I think that I might have been wrong about something" Pansy muttered lightly and Ginny's head shot up, a look of shock clear on her face. Pansy tried to ignore it as she carried on "I think that you doing Colin would not be the worst thing in the world, even if it does go against a few of the rules that we set for ourselves"

"What rules?" Ginny asked in a calm voice, she did not want to seem demanding.

"Well he is a Gryffindor and you were meant to be doing Hufflepuffs"

"I know" Ginny sighed "but it was so hard to find someone and Colin had the looks of what we needed, alright" Ginny added reluctantly when she saw the look Pansy was giving her "in a few years he may become better looking but the hair and eyes were right if nothing else, I just wanted to be able to find someone"

Pansy nodded.

"Understandable, I mean its Hufflepuff, I don't think anyone could be found in that kind of house, a hard job if there ever is one"

Ginny offered a small smile in thanks and much to her surprise Pansy found herself smiling back."Also I guess I should not of had ago at you for not telling us who you had picked, it was optional and I think I made it a bit of a bigger problem then it really was so that you would say something"

Pansy nodded her head in acknowledgment and once again both girls found themselves looking any where but at one another, they had never gotten on well before and while this had been what they had been working so hard for it still felt wrong to be speaking on such polite terms. Pansy welcomed the distraction of the red headed girl slightly as she opened her bag and reached in to grab the pink folder that she was not meant to have.

"Well" she said in a bright voice that seemed wrong coming from her "like we said we should get something done, I'll make notes, may I borrow a pen please?"

Ginny looked startled from her tone of voice and bright smile but nodded none the less and reached down for her bag, knowing she had but seconds to complete the task for a second time Pansy reached over and grabbed the fake book from across the table, stuffed it into her bag and pulled the real one from her lap. Before she had time to place it in front of Ginny the girl was already sat upright, two pens in her hand and looking confused when she noticed the book missing. She looked up at Pansy and her mouth opened slightly as she noticed the book held tightly in her hands. Much to her embarrassment Pansy could feel her cheeks starting to warm at being caught, what was wrong with her?

"Sorry" Pansy said quickly before Ginny could even think of something to say "when I said writing notes I meant…well I never have before but I thought…I should not of assumed-"

"No!" Ginny said quickly while cutting across her, things were going well and she did not want anything to get in the way "its fine, your right you have not done it yet, its only right that you should have ago"

Pansy nodded slowly as she reached over and accepted the pen that Ginny was offering her, with a small smile and a good mood that had suddenly appeared for reasons she did not know she carefully opened the book and the two girls started the two girls did not understand clearly what had happened that morning one thing was for sure: it was a big step in their friendship.

---*---

Draco Malfoy's knuckles had turned white from the pressure of holding onto his bedpost so tightly, he would of liked to have let go but he had no idea what he would do if he did, he could feel the blood running though his body at fast speeds and in the silence he could hear his heart beating faster and faster as his temper carried on rising with every second that passed.

Many people had seen him when he had been mad before but this seemed to be something else all together, he could not remember ever feeling like this before, he was shaking slightly and all he could think about was how good he would feel if he could hit someone or cause come kind of pain to someone around him.

The draw before him was open wide and completely empty.

Only a few people even new that he had the book and with his mind set he took a deep breath and slowly let go of the bed post, he stayed there for a few seconds longer while keeping hold of his temper before spinning around and making his way out of the common room.

Someone had betrayed him.

And someone was going to pay dearly for it.

---*---

It was hard being mean all of the time.

Blaise had come to realise this within his first week of Hogwarts and while he had years to perfect his scowl and all of the right looks to hide every emotion that went through his mind he had found himself becoming bored with his cold mask that his father had always forced him to wear.

The upcoming war seemed to be putting everyone's life on hold and he could not help but hate it because of everything that it had already done to stop him from living his life the way that he had wanted too, he had never put much thought into what kind of person he had wanted to be and instead his younger years had been focused on being the kind of person that his father had wanted him to be.

But that was before her.

He had no idea when he had fallen in love with his best friend, all he knew was that he woke up one morning, went down to breakfast and she was just _there_. Her smile was suddenly the best thing that he had ever seen and her laugh sounded so perfect that it made him smile just by hearing it for a few seconds.

But then everything had changed.

He could not remember the last time that she had laughed.

Blaise's eyes widened slightly and he was brought out of his thoughts as a hand reached over and grabbed hold of the front of his shirt and pulled him round to the side, he stumbled slightly and felt a pain run up his back as he was suddenly pushed into a wall, he felt his head hit the cold stone with the force. Confused, he blinked a few times and frowned when the person who had gold of his came into focus.

"Draco?"

"Did you tell anyone?" his friend demanded.

"Excuse me?"

Draco let out a frustrated growl and pushed him harder still into the wall.

"I said did you tell anyone about the folder!"

Realisation hit Blaise at full force and for a second he debated telling Draco everything he knew about where the real folder was, he had warned Pansy against taking it and anything that would happen to her would be her own fault, he had told her what would happen. Seeing the anger in the blond haired boys eyes and the small pain in the back of his head was enough of a reminder for him to make up his mind.

"No, I thought you had it?"

"If I had it then do you really think that I would be here asking you about it?" Draco was talking through his teeth and Blaise noticed that he was shaking slightly, he had only known Draco to lose his temper at times like this but he had never seen him like this before, there was a look in his eyes that worried him to no end. Draco was not the kind of person to show any kind of emotion, even if it was a bad one.

"Point taken" Blaise replied as calmly as he could "but I did not tell anyone and I could not think of anyone that would"

Some what calmer Draco nodded slightly and released his friend slowly, he backed away from him and straightened out his clothes slightly before turning his attention back to the person that he had been threatening not so long ago.

"Its gone and I think that-" Draco stopped suddenly, his eyes widened a few inches and his scowl returned along with the anger in his eyes. Before Blaise could question him he had already turned around and started to walk off.

"Wait" Blaise called after him "where are you going?"

"Pansy" Draco hissed before turning a corner and walking out of sight.

Blaise stood there for a few seconds and he felt like he could not move, that there was something wrong with his body and his mind was racing, Draco knew who had done it and if he had done that to him, someone that he still spoke to in a reasonably friendly manner then he did not even want to think about that was going to happen to Pansy where Draco finally found that thought still in mind he started to run as fast as he could, he had to find her before Draco did, there was no other option for him.

He would let Draco do a lot of things, but he could not let him hurt the person that he loved.

---*---

Hermione smiled to herself in self defeat, she had tried to stay away from the meetings as long as she could but it turned out that she was very weak minded when it came to things like this. It her books it was something that had to done and could not wait any longer. Pansy and Ginny should of gotten there half an hour ago and while she was not one to expect miracles to happen she found herself praying to god that they had not killed each other in the last few days that she had not been there.

Her mind wandered slightly and she walked and she found herself thinking about Draco Malfoy once more, while she was still thinking about the chose that she had made and all of the things that could go wrong she still could not bring herself to think that she had done the wrong thing in picking him out.

He had all of the looks that they had been looking for and yes, while his personality may not be the best one she was determined to give it a chance.

She turned into the corridor that the classroom was located and stopped suddenly, standing there was Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini in the middle of what looked to be a rather heated argument. They were whispering to one another and their faces were set into such scowled that Hermione considered turning around and walking away, two Slytherin boys were not something that she wanted to be in the middle of.

"Just calm down, she might not have done anything!" she heard Blaise hiss.

"Of course she has, do you really think that someone like her would be able to keep her mouth shut for more then a few seconds. She is weak and someone like her would never be able to look at the bigger picture" Draco replied in the cold tone that she knew all too well.

Blaise moved forward slightly and for a second Hermione's eyes widened as she thought that Blaise was going to hit Draco across the face, the dark haired boy breathed deeply for a second before replying in an overly calm voice:

"I'm going to ask you not to speak about her like that. For all you know she had nothing to do with this and it could just be some misunderstanding"

They carried on talking and their voices got so low that she found she could not longer hear them, her mind when back to the idea of just walking away when she mind suddenly thought about Pansy and Ginny, within seconds her mind was suddenly set. With a false smile she started on walking forward and hoped that she could act like she had seen nothing.

Her steps echoed around the corridor and both boys turned to look at her, Draco looked pained but still angry while she spotted Blaise roll his eyes and look at the floor, almost like she would be able to know everything that had just happened by looking at him.

"Malfoy, Zabini" Hermione greeted calmly with a small nod of her head.

"Granger" Draco replied quietly but Blaise still did not say a word and acted like she was not even there, Hermione tried not to take it too personal, they had never been on friendly terms before and she could think why that would change now.

"I'm sorry if I interrupted something"

"You didn't" Blaise said in a small voice as he turned and gave Draco a pointed look "In fact I think you will find that we were just leaving"

The two boys stared at each other for a few seconds before Draco raised his eyebrows and looked at Hermione.

"I was just looking for Pansy, I had been told that I could find her in one of these classrooms"Hermione's heart felt like it had missed a beat and she felt suddenly sick, who would of told them where they could find her? What was she meant to say she was doing here with them? As though Draco could read her mind her carried on talking.

"At least that what was I had heard, something about a detention, I had rather hoped that it would be over by now"

"Yes" Hermione nodded with a relieved smile "yes I think that it should be over by now, would you like me to get her for you?"

"Don't worry about it, I'll go in there and-"

"NO!" Hermione yelled before she could stop herself, she had no idea what they would walk into if they went into there unannounced. Both boys turned to look at her in confusion and she smiled sheepishly as her cheeks started to heat up under their gaze, she had never looked so silly in her life. "That is to say that I should go in and let her know. If a professor is still in there like I think then it would do no good to have you just walk in there would it?"

Draco looked at Blaise for a second before he nodded and smiled almost thankfully at Hermione she froze in mid step and looked at him for a second, she had never seen him smile in any kind of way before now. The fact that she liked it scared her slightly.

"Thank you Hermione"

She nodded slightly and smiled at the use of her name before opening the door and walking into the class room, she had no idea what was happening but she found that she liked it slightly.

---*---

"You're joking" Ginny asked in a slightly shocked voice "someone did that to you as well?"Pansy nodded and smiled sadly.

"Yep and they were not even sorry about it. I was mad as hell though, I mean come on how bad of a break up line is it: I love you but I'm not _in_ love with you. They say it like there is meant to be some kind of difference that we are meant to be seeing and we keep in missing it"

Ginny nodded in agreement.

"Tell me about it" Ginny paused before she smiled slightly "Its good to know that someone else had been going through the same kind of things that I had been"

"Yeah" Pansy replied in a small voice "It looks like you and me have are not as different as I thought we were"

"At least we know now" Ginny said brightly "I think that things are going to get better now, you watch before you know it there will be no more problems with the project and then the whole thing will be over"

"Yeah" Pansy said as she felt guilt wash over her "It'll be over…look there is something that I think you need to know. When this whole thing started I-"

The door suddenly opened and both girls turned around to see Hermione walk in and close the door behind her. Ginny smiled brightly and sprung out of her chair to greet her friend.

"Hermione" she greeted happily as they hugged "I did not think that you were going to show up again today"

"I almost didn't" Hermione replied honestly with a large smile "but I found that I could not stay away and I was right, here you two are working and no one is dead yet!"

"Yeah" Ginny said while she turned to Pansy and smiled brightly "I'm thinking that working together is going to be better from now on, you'll have nothing to worry about"

"That's good then, Pansy Draco and Blaise are waiting out side for you"

There was a loud crash and both girls turned around to look at Pansy, her eyes were wide and her face had turned slightly white, she did not even bother to look down at the floor to see the bottle of ink that she had just dropped while packing away her things. Her mind was buzzing and she found that it took everything she had to stop herself from screaming out loud, there would be only one reason that Draco would be here to see her. Blaise had done just what he had said he would and told Draco that it had been her who stole the book.

He was going to kill her.

"Are you alright?" Ginny asked with concern in her voice "is something wrong, you don't look too good"

"Did he say what he was here for?" Pansy asked in the calmest voice that she could, her question was directed to Hermione and she tried to block Ginny out. She had been getting so close to the small red haired girl and as she thought about how close she had been to telling her everything she closed her eyes and had to hold back tears, she had been so close to something that she knew she could never have, Draco waiting for her was a painful reminder of what her life was really like. This class room was just a few hours a week.

"No" Hermione replied with concern on her face that matched that of her friends "He just said that he had been looking for you…do you not want to see him? I always thought that the two of you were good friends?"

"We are" Pansy replied with a small laugh "I just did not think that he would be here to see me is all, after all he can not see anything that's in here right?"

Hermione nodded slowly.

"Well" Pansy muttered while packing away the remainder of her things are doing everything she could to keep herself smiling, she would of loved to never have to leave this room but she was going to have to face it sooner or later. "I guess I should be going then, he hates to be kept waiting for too long, could you clear the ink up for me?"

Hermione nodded once and Pansy smiled brightly.

"See you later then!"

With that she walked to the door as fast as she could, her hand rested on the handle for a second before she turned back and smiled a small sad smile. Her expression was so sad that Ginny was reminded of someone who was saying good bye for the last time.

"Thank you" Pansy muttered "Really, thank you"

The door closed with a small snap and Hermione and Ginny shared a worried look, there was something very wrong here - they just had no idea what it was.

---*---

"Please" Blaise said as soon as Hermione was out of sight "please don't do this to her. For all you know it was someone else that took it, the person might not even have anything to do with this whole thing"

Draco gave him a small look but his expression did not change. His mind had been made up and there was nothing that was going to change it.

"Were you not listening before?" Draco asked "My mind has already been made up, she is the only one that would be weak enough to let that silly heart of her get in the way"

"And yet you still confronted me?"

"I wanted to keep my options open to anyone"

"And yet you have not asked Theo about any of this?"

Draco frowned slightly at Blaise words, it was true that he had not yet asked the third party that has known about the folder but he still found it odd that Blaise would drag on of his friends so openly into a problem when he had other options in front of him.

"Would you like me to think that it is Theo then?"

"What? No, of course not- I just - I simply meant that-"

"I know how you feel about her Blaise"

There was a small silence as Blaise thought about his reply, he would have wanted to lie and tell Draco that he was wrong but there would have been no point to it, calling him a liar was not going to get him any where right now.

"This has nothing to do with what's happening right now and you know that"

"Considering the fact that you just tried to bring Theo, your very good friend into the picture I would say that it had everything to do with that. Your trying to protect her and I don't like that very much. I take it you do remember what I said last time the two of you, how should I say…moved your relationship forward?"

"Of course I do" Blaise replied tightly "Every word"

"Then remember it"

The door opened and both boys turned to look at it, Pansy slowly walked out, her head hung low and her hair was covering most of her face, for a second Blaise thought that he could see tears in her eyes but as she finally looked up her face was dry and looked as hard as stone.

"You wanted to see me?" she asked with no emotion in her voice.

"Yes" Draco sneered "I think that there are something's that you and I need to talk about Pansy"

The black haired girl nodded.

"Shoot"

Quicker than she thought possible he had moved the few steps in between them and took hold of her arm, his grip was so tight and she let out a small yell and almost dropped her bag from the pain, she did not want Hermione and Ginny to come and see what was happening, then everything would be gone.

"I would not tempt me right now, I know it was you""Draco…" Blaise stepped forward and Pansy could see a slightly panic in his eyes, before he could move a step closer Draco had pulled out his wand.

"Protego!"

An invisible shield was suddenly in between Blaise and Pansy and Blaise stumbled back slightly from the force of it, he could not think of what to do, he could not even think about what Draco was going to do to her.

"Let her go" Blaise said as he pulled out his own wand, he knew that there was nothing that he could do but he hated feeling helpless like this, there was something good about having hold of his wand. "She has not done anything."

"I think I'll be the judge of that. I warned you about this, getting your emotions messed with business is never a good thing Blaise"

Before he could even think of something to reply Draco had tightened his grip on Pansy's arm and started to pull her along, tears were in her eyes and the whole way she had her head turned to look at Blaise in pleading for something that he could not do. She did not call out to him or even scream his name but he knew that she wanted his help.

"You'll be alright!" he called out to her hopelessly "Everything is going to be alright!"

Suddenly he had no idea who he was talking to, her of himself.

***Shock!* Oh my god, what's going to happen? = )**

**Please review!**

**Haraldzidla xx**


	10. perfectly decided

**Here is another chapter I am so sorry for the long wait! I hope that you all like this chapter! I am working on the next one right now!**

**Thank you for all of your reviews I love them!**

**I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER, JUST THE PLOT!**

Chapter Ten

Perfectly decided.

Day Nine.

"Please" Pansy pleaded for what seemed like the hundredth time that day "please don't do this Draco, your scaring me"

"You should be scared" he hissed as he carried on pulling her along "No one gets away with going behind my back Pansy, no one! I would of thought that you would of known better then to do something like this"

"Draco, I don't know what your talking about" Pansy lied, she had never been much of a liar but she was hoping that he would not be able to see through her tears, the words were a lie but the tears were real, they seemed more real then anything that she had even known "I don't know what's going on"

"Stop lying!" he practically screamed while shaking her slightly "What have I always told you? Never lie to me, your bad at it. You would do well to remember that you stupid little girl"

"But I'm not!" she sobbed desperately "I did everything that you asked me to do and right when you told me to do it, Granger has picked you, your on her list and right at the top as well, I don't understand-"

"That's right Pansy, you don't understand! You seem to think that this whole thing in some kind of game and you can play on what ever side you like. War is not something that you can play with, you have to pick a side and stick with it instead of jumping from side to side all of the time. Life is not like that and its about time that you thought about some things. Its time for you to grow up, even if I am going to have to force you to take the first few steps"

Fear seemed to wrap its self around her heart at his words and the meaning that they could have behind them. From the start of the school year rumours had been travelling around the Slytherin common room like wild fire and the most famous one made her feel sick ever time she heard someone whispering about it - Draco Malfoy was a Death Eater.

The youngest one that there had ever been.

She risked a small glance at him, he was breathing heavily with a scowl on his face and his eyes seemed darker then she had even seen them, suddenly the thought of him being a Death Eater, even at this age, seemed realistic to her. As he dragged her along she realised why his anger seemed so familiar to her: he looked just like his father.

His father who killed people with or without being asked and would only stop in the act so that he could laugh at them in their last moments.

She had heard so many stories about his family but it was only now, as she was being pulled along by the person that she had once thought had been her friend did she realise just how horrible and how chilling they really where.

Her mind started racing, what if her old friend really was a Death Eater? What if he really had killed people like his father had done so many times before him? He would not care about what he did. She suddenly wondered what he was going to do to her.

Would he hurt her?

Hex her?

Curse her?

Kill her?

She shivered as another thought ran through her mind when his words ran through her mind: "_Its time to grow up, even if I am going to have to force you to take the first few steps" _

To be branded a Death Eater was something that she had always saw in her future, it was in her family and in her blood- there could be nothing else for her. Suddenly the one thing that she had thought she wanted for so long scared her more then anything else in the world, she pictured people screaming and running, dead lifeless eyes watched her from every where she stood and finally a bright green light that had come from the end of her wand. She thought about all of the things that she could do and all of the pain that her actions would have on other people.

She had thought that she had to be a killer.

Fresh tears filled her eyes and her breathing increased with every step that she took, she did not want this. She wanted to be a normal person and not in the middle of this war that she wanted no part of. She had always thought that she would have her family standing by her side, looking at her with respect that every child wants from their parents at some point in their parents would only be proud of a murderer.

The realisation made her feel sick.

She was going to disappoint them, she told herself firmly, no matter what she had done in her life and no matter how many people she had been mean to there was one thing that she was never going to do.

She was not going to kill _anyone._

Muggle or not.

Pansy Parkinson was never going to be a murder and even if she had to die instead of someone that she hardly knew being her own person was going to make it worth it.

She could do this.

She would do this.

---*---

"So, you two seemed to be getting on well then" Hermione said casually as she helped Ginny pack away the remainder of her things, she knew that the meeting would have had to gone well for the two girls to be getting on but she did not want to push her theory very far, for all she knew Ginny could turn around and start insulting Pansy at any second.

For reasons that had always been unknown to Hermione, Ginny and Pansy had never gotten on from the moment that Ginny had started Hogwarts, she had no idea if it was simply because of the difference between them and their houses or if there was something more personal to Hermione's shock Ginny simply smiled and carried on packing away her things, Hermione frowned and was silent for a while as they packed, she did not want to seem like she was pushing but part of her had to know.

"You know you want to" Ginny said with a hint of smugness in her voice. "Just ask already"

"Alright" Hermione sighed with a slight smile "How have you and Pansy been getting on?"

"Better" Ginny replied as she put her full bag over her shoulder "It was hard to get anything done without you but today…seemed different. I think that she is letting her guard down slightly and being nice for once. I never thought I would say his but…I think that I am starting to like her"

Hermione smiled and nodded.

"I knew that you would be better without me to break up your fights all the time"

Ginny nodded.

"I think it did help" Ginny smiled "but it will be really good to have you back…you are coming back right?"

"Of course-"

A loud scream filled the air and Hermione and Ginny jumped slightly before turning around to the door, the sound seemed to wrap its self around Hermione and make her heart turn deathly cold. It was not a scream of pain but rather one that sounded inhuman, so much emotion and meaning in one simple sound seemed horribly wrong. Ginny turned to look at Hermione and both of them nodded with out saying a word, they both knew what had to be done. As one they walked to the door and quickly pulled it open to try and find the source.

To their shock Blaise Zabini was standing there, his breathing coming in deep breaths as his hands clenched at his hair in handfuls, he looked more helpless then they had ever thought they would see him. He was looking straight ahead with wide eyes and both girls were sure that he had not even noticed that they were standing there.

"Blaise?" Ginny whispered as she stepped forward slowly, she only knew the boy from other people speaking about him and while they had never even spoken before she found that she could not just leave him standing there by himself, she had never seen someone look so alone before. "Are you alright?"

Slowly he turned to look a them, his expression did not change in the slightest and while he looked right at them it seemed more like he was seeing nothing, even after a full minute had passed he still did not attempt to say anything, he just stood there and looked at them.

"Is…is something wrong?"

Slowly he nodded.

"Yes" he whispered in a horse voice that confirmed that the scream had come from him. "Its wrong. Everything about this is wrong"

"What happened?" Hermione asked as she realised that Blaise was going to talk to them.

"She's gone and I don't know where to find her"

Something in Hermione's mind seemed to click into place and she remembered what had happened before she had walked into the classroom, he had been standing there with Draco…and they had wanted to see Pansy…

"Pansy" Hermione whispered before saying in a louder voice "Do you mean Pansy? Is that the she that you are talking about?"

He nodded slightly before shaking his head and blinking, the life suddenly seemed to come back into his eyes and he took a deep breath before standing up straighter.

"I have to go" he said in his normal cold voice.

With out a second glance at them he started to walk away and Hermione found that she could not just let it end like that.

"Wait!" Hermione called "Maybe there is something that we can do to help you"

He stopped in mid step and stood there for a few seconds before turning back around to look at them, as soon as his gaze latched onto Hermione's she felt herself take a large step back and next to her Ginny did the same. The change in him within a few passing seconds was amazing, his eyes were suddenly cold and there was the sneer on his face that she had seen on Slytherin's faces more times then she could count.

"I don't think that I need anything from a mudblood and blood traitor but if I ever find myself that low then I will owl you"

He laughed coldly before turning away once more and finally leaving Hermione and Ginny standing alone in the too quiet corridor.

"What just happened?" Ginny asked when she could not longer stand the opened her mouth and tried attempted to reply before sighing and looking at Ginny with a helpless look.

"You know, I really have no idea"

But she knew that whatever it was it could not be good.

---*---

"I can't do this"

These four words seemed to be the only thing that Pansy could think, she knew that he had taken her to the seventh floor but she had no idea what room she was in, she had never seen it in the years that she had been at Hogwarts, it was small and dark with nothing in it but herself. She had no idea why he had taken her here but all he knew is that he had left her here……and locked the door behind him.

**FLASH BACK**

_He pushed her into the room with such force that she tripped on her way in and fell to her knees, she wanted to get up and try and run past him but even before she looked around at him she understood all too well that it was not going to do her any good, he would be able to over power her and her attempts at getting away from him would only make him more angry then he already was._

_Her eyes stung from the many tears that she had tried in the last few minutes and even as she tried everything that she could think of to make them stop it was not use. With every moment that passed more and more tears fell from her eyes._

"_Your going to stay here to think about what you have done"_

"_Please" she cried "I haven't done anything wrong, I…I d-don't know what y-you think I have done but your w-wrong-"_

"_You betrayed me Pansy" he whispered quietly, his voice seemed to echo around the room and for a second her sobs stopped slightly as she watched him standing there, he was turned away from her and looking blankly at one of the rooms small walls while his face held no emotion or feeling in it she could not help but think that he was thinking about something, something that he did not like in the slightest "You went against what I asked you to do and I can't have you doing that, it's all wrong, do you understand that?"_

"_No" Pansy replied through her tears "I don't seem to understand anything that you have been saying lately"_

"_I know Pansy" he whispered "and that's why you're here"_

_He turned all the way away from her and headed to the door, she could feel her breaths coming faster and faster as a sense of panic started to run through her whole body, it seemed that she had been right in thinking that he was going to leave her here alone. _

_No one would be able to find her._

_No one would know what had happened to her._

_If he did not come back…then she was going to die, all alone._

"_Blaise will look for me" she said before she could stop herself, she needed to give him a reason to make him rethink his actions, even if she already knew that it was hopeless to get him to change his mind. He always thought that he knew best and nothing anyone said was even going to change that._

"_I know" he replied after a moment longer of silence "But he'll never find you"_

_Another sobbed escaped her mouth as the door slammed shut with a loud "bang"_

**END OF FLASH BACK**

Pansy wrapped her arms around her legs and took a deep breath while trying to hold back more tears, things looked hopeless right now but it was going to be alright. Blaise was going to find her and then everything would be alright again.

Everything would be alright

**Hope you liked it, please review!**

**Haraldzidla **


	11. Perfectly Mad

**Hey everyone, I am sorry that this is so late but my lap top broke and I have only been able to get this up because my birthday finally passed and I got my new lap top = D**

**Thank you to everyone for your reviews I loved them and please keep them coming they make me smile!**

**I DO NOT OWN THE CHARACTORS ONLY THE STORY LINE!**

**Chapter Eleven**

**Perfectly Mad**

**Day Nine.**

Theo Nott laid down the book he had been reading and sighed, he still could not believe that so much had happened in so little time. Draco's little "project" with Granger did not seem to be getting him any where and from what he had heard from Blaise his old friend was getting no where closer to making Granger fall for him, something that both Blaise and himself had been thankful for.

So much had happened in the last few years and now that the war seemed only a few years away there was no time to lose with such games, Draco seemed stuck in a small box while he had to remember that there was a much bigger picture out there, what kind of person had time to play games at a time like this?

"Draco Malfoy" Blaise thought to himself while rolling his eyes lightly. Draco had changed so much over the last few years but he was always going to be one of the people that Blaise cared for, even if he didn't deserve it all of the time.

They had to save Draco before it was too late.

The door to the common room suddenly opened and Blaise jumped slightly so the book that had been resting on his lap landing on the floor loudly but Theo ignored it when he caught sight of a distressed looking Blaise standing in the door way. His dark haired friend was standing in the door way, one hand still resting on the handle of their door and his breaths coming in heavy gulps as he looked around the room with panicked eyes.

"Where is he?" Blaise almost yelled before Theo could even think of something to say.

"W-Who?" Theo asked when he had finally found his voice, something was wrong here and he knew that he was not going to like it "Where is who?"

"Draco!" Blaise replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world "Where is Draco?"

"Why?" Theo asked with panic thick in his voice from the mention of his other best friend "is something wrong? Is he in danger?"

"He will be!" Blaise replied in a tone that was dripping with nothing but loathing, he sounded so mad that Theo found himself taking a step back, he had never seen his friend like this before now "Now tell me where he is!"

"The kitchen, I think. He said something about getting something to eat and having a drink before bed."

Blaise nodded slightly in thanks and Theo called out to him before he could walk away.

"Wait! What's going on?"

"No time" Blaise simply replied before turning away and running down the stairs without saying another word.

Theo looked unblinkingly at the place where Blaise had been standing mere seconds ago before looking down at his book that was laying open on the floor and sighing once more. Within seconds he picked up the book, placed in on his bed side table and grabbed hold of his dressing gown, the night was growing late but he had bigger things to worry about than being caught in his night wear.

Something was happening and he needed to know what it was.

His friend needed him and right now nothing else mattered.

---*---

Pansy opened her eyes and wiped the sleep from them before closing them once more, she had no idea how she had managed to fall asleep in the first place but suddenly she no longer cared about the reason, instead she just wished that she could feel the bliss of sleep once more.

_So dark…._

She closed her eyes tighter and attempted to force sleep on herself, sleeping was so much better then being awake, awake she was still her in this room, trapped all alone in the darkness as the walls seemed to creep ever so closer with every passing second.

_Please someone, make the darkness go away…_

Pansy was used to the small spaces but she hated them more then anything else in the world, they made her remember home, being pulled along by her arm by her father with such force that she would have bruises for weeks, her mother yelling at her in anger, the gleam in theirs eyes that she would see right before they whacked their fists into her face, she could hear it now, the sound of their cold laugher as they pushed her into the darkroom under the stairs and the loud sound of the key in the door as they clicked it shut.

_It's so dark and I can't get out, someone please, find me, get me out…._

Hot tears ran down Pansy's face as she pulled her legs closer to her body and wrapped her arms around them tightly, she suddenly felt like a small child once again, bring trapped away from everyone else because she had not been a good girl.

She was a good girl.

Just not their kind of good girl.

She wanted to be good.

So she changed.

She became their "good girl"

_Please mummy, I'll be good, I swear I'll be good!_

She had given in and in return they had taken away her soul. That night Pansy Parkinson remembered everything she had tried to make herself forget, she remembered her parents screaming, the day she had given in and how good she had once wished she could be.

"_I'll always be good mummy. I love you"_

"_I love you too, my good little girl"_

---*---

"Where is she?"

Draco raised his eyebrows and smirked slightly before talking another gulp of his drink, he had known that Blaise was going to end up finding him soon and he was ready for this. He had no intention of telling him where he had hidden Pansy and no matter what he did that was not going to change. He put down his glass and cleared his throat before replying.

"I don't think I know what you are talking about"

Without thinking about what he was doing Blaise took a big step forward, he had no idea what he was planning to do but standing here and talking did not seem like it was going to get him any where. Theo reached out a hand to stop his friend but it seemed there was no need, before he could do anything Blaise has taken out his wand and calmly pointed it at his black haired friend, as soon as Blaise had spotted it he stopped walking and took a deep breath. He knew that Draco would not even think twice before turning on him.

That was the kind of person that he had turned into.

"I would think very carefully before doing anything else if I were you" Draco calmly said with a small smile, like always he seemed to have the upper hand and he loved it.

Theo narrowed his eyes at Draco and sighed in defeat, he had been hoping that there was something that he could do to try and help Blaise and Pansy but it seemed like they were going to lose.

"Don't do this Draco" Theo warned "You have no idea what you are getting yourself into"

"No Theo, I really think that it is the two of you that have no idea what you are getting yourselves into considering that you are the ones trying to threatening me"

"Hey" Theo said while raising his hands in surrender "last time I checked you were the one with the wand in your hand, not us"

"Be that as it may I can see that idiot friend of yours just itching to reach for his wand and personally I don't think that I am stupid enough to let it go that far"

A sound escaped Blaise's mouth that sounded scarily like a growl.

"Stupid, no but you sure are bloody thick headed" Blaise hissed "Do you even think about what you do any more or is being like your father something that comes naturally now?"

Draco's drip on his wand tightened and he stood up so fast that his chair fell backwards as a number of house elves scattered across the room to get out of harms way, they hated students fighting in their kitchen but could see nothing that they could do to stop it when it seemed like a fight was only seconds away.

"I am warning you right now and I shall only do it once, don't you dare ever talk about my father again. He is a great man and I believe that you would do well to remember that, the pair of you"

"She is your friend Draco, we are your friends. Please don't do this to us. Just tell us where she is and we will forget that this whole thing happened" Theo said in a defeated voice, he had no idea what to do, Blaise was seconds away from losing his temper and he had a feeling that the out come would be nothing good "All we want is to know that she is okay…we just need to know that you haven't done anything to her"

Draco watched them for a few long seconds before lowering his wand, picking up his chair and sitting back down like nothing had happened. He had a cold and emotionless expression on his face that reminded his two friends of his father.

"You want to know if I have hurt her?"

"Yes"

"Alright" Draco replied with a small nod "I will say this: she is not hurt and will be back tomorrow night in the common room like nothing happened"

"Dr-"

"Tomorrow night Theo. That's all I'm saying. If you carry on then it might be a bit longer"

"Why?" Blaise asked in a desperate voice "Why are you doing this?"

"She betrayed me Blaise" Draco said with a small shrug "No one betrays me and gets away with it, you should know that and possibly remember it for next time you decide to try and play hero for your little girlfriend"

Theo nodded, there was nothing else that hey would be able to do now, all they could do is hope that Pansy would be with them tomorrow, safe and sound like they hoped. He lightly pulled Blaise after his and was surprised at how easily he followed him. Blaise seemed almost in a daze as they walked out of the kitchen and back to their common room, he wanted more then anything to have Pansy standing with him and the thought scared him slightly.

He had always known that he cared for her.

It just wasn't in till he thought that she was in danger that he realised how much he did care about her.

That night Theo went to sleep thinking about how wrong everything had gone and all Blaise could think about was how he should never of let Pansy leave with that folder that day, how he should of forced her out of the room and talked to her for once instead of being cold.

He should of said he loved her.

There was so much that he should of done.

---*---

**Day Ten**

Hermione looked at the clock on the wall and sighed, she had been sitting in the same place for the last fifteen minutes and every second seemed to be passing more slowly then normal. Ginny had been feeling ill this morning and had asked if she could give the meeting a miss today, something that Hermione could find understandable but with the time now ten minutes passed the hour she was started to worry about the fact that she was still the only one in the room.

Pansy had yet to show up.

Hermione had known that this was something that Pansy had never been a hundred percent behind, maybe even something that she didn't care about, but in all the meetings that they had had so far she had never been late once, something that had been an unexpected but pleasant surprise to both Ginny and herself.

Hermione frowned as the seconds carried on ticking away, and she rolled her eyes in annoyance, just when she had been thinking that things with Pansy might be changing and her opinion of the Slytherin girl had gone up she had to go and pull something as childish as this. Then again it did sound like something that someone like her would do just to piss someone that they didn't like mind wondered to the events of yesterday and she leaned back in her chair while thinking about it, Ginny and herself still had no idea what had happened and after talking about it they had both agreed not to ask unless Pansy said something about why Draco had wanted to talk to her, although they might be getting on with Pansy for the time being that did not mean that it was always going to be like that.

Had she really thought that things were going to be better between them just because her and Ginny had gotten on for one night?

The very thought almost made her smile she could not believe that she had thought Pansy to be a better person just because she had not called Ginny any names for a full two hours.

With a sigh of defeat Hermione stood up and started packing away her things as she thought about how disappointed Ginny was going to be when she told her that Pansy had never bothered to show up this morning. She scowled at the thought, while Ginny had not really said anything about it Hermione could not help but think that her friend had been secretly pleased with her new found friendship in the black haired Slytherin girl.

That morning Hermione left that room thinking that she knew one thing for sure: Pansy Parkinson was not a nice person.

---*---

"What do you mean she didn't show up?"

Hermione took a deep breath and tried not to lose her temper with her friend, she had been asking the same thing for the last ten minutes and Hermione could not understand why, she knew that Ginny and Pansy had gotten on yesterday but that did not mean that the girl was simply going to change over night because they managed not to kill one another for an hour.

"I have told you Ginny, I showed up, waited for her and she never showed. There is nothing else too it really, she must have had something better to do with her time"

"And you are sure that you waited long enough? She could of just been running late this morning and did not show up on time"

"Yes!" Hermione scowled "I waited there for almost an hour and she did not show up. Would you rather I had waited longer?"

Ginny sighed and leaned back in her bed, she knew that she was annoying Hermione with her questions but there was something about this that did not seem right.

"Sorry" she sighed as she closed her eyes, she had been feeling ill since late last night and her head was hurting her "I don't mean to annoy you Hermione, I guess I just thought that she seemed different the other day. I was under the impression that this was starting to become something that she cared about now, not some silly game. I really thought that she was going to show this morning"

Hermione smiled kindly and nodded as she placed Ginny's homework on the bed side table, one of the things that she had always loved about her red headed friend was how she always tried to see the best in people, even ones as mean and dark as Pansy Parkinson.

"I know Ginny, believe me, after what you told me about how she was with you even I was ready to start believing that she had changed some how. I guess some times we can all be wrong about people"Ginny nodded while looking out of her window, there was still something about this whole thing that was bothering her, some thing that was telling her that there was something wrong with this.

Suddenly a thought entered her mind.

"Hermione, what do you think was really happening yesterday when Draco and Blaise came to get Pansy?"

Hermione shrugged.

"No idea, maybe its some Slytherin thing that we don't understand"

"Yeah" Ginny replied with a thoughtful nod "I guess it could be something like that…do you remember seeing her at dinner?"

"No" Hermione said with a small frown "To be honest I don't really pay attention to her when I don't have to. It's not like we're friends after all"

"Have you seen her at all after she left yesterday?"

"No, Ginny what's going on? What's with all the questions, is something wrong?"

"No, no nothing is wrong…at least I don't think that it is…I just have a bad feeling about this"

"About what?" Hermione asked with a frown "About her not showing up?"

"About everything. About her seeming so scared when she left, about Draco and Blaise personally coming to get her. About how Blaise was when we saw him in the hall way yesterday and about how we have not seen her since. Do you really not think that there is anything wrong with all of that when you look at it all together?"

"I don't know" Hermione replied slowly as she thought about it all "I had never thought about it like that really…but I am sure that its nothing too bad. It's Hogwarts after all" Hermione concluded with a small nod, she had always believed that nothing really bad could happen in school grounds.

"Lots of bad things have happened in Hogwarts before Hermione, not that I need to remind you"

"True" Hermione agreed reluctantly "but they are her friends, they would never do something bad to her"

"But its like you just said Hermione, it could be something Slytherin that we would not understand"Slowly Hermione sat down at the end of Ginny's bed and frowned before turning to look at her, she could not remember the last time her friend had fought so hard for something.

"You really think that there is something bad happening here don't you?"

"Yeah" Ginny said with a small nod "I know it sounds silly but I really do"

Hermione turned away and sighed, she did not agree with what Ginny was saying but could see how much it was worrying her.

"Alright" Hermione finally said "I will make you a deal, you spend today trying to get better and tomorrow, if and only if we don not see Pansy or hear from her then we will go and speak to Dumbledore personally about this, alright?"

"Alright, Deal" Ginny said with a smile "Thank you"

"Yeah, yeah" Hermione sighed whole getting up and picking her bag "I have some homework to do but I will come back and see you later. In the mean time remember what I said, get some sleep!"

With that Hermione left the room and closed the door behind her. Ginny sighed and pulled the bed covers around her, there was something wrong here and as soon as she managed to get out of this bed she was going to find out what.

---*---

Pansy jumped slightly at the sound of the lock on the door clicking open suddenly, the old door creaked painfully as the door slowly opened and light erupted around the room for the first time in hours, the bright light caused Pansy to snap her eyes shut and cover them before she could reopen them, it seemed like it had been forever since she had seen any sign of light. She peaked through her fingers to see Draco standing in the door way with a cheerful smile on his face, he looked happy but there was something false about it that made her skin crawl, she knew that every smile that came from him had to be fake in some way. He closed the door behind him and leaned against in silently with the smile still in place, he seemed pleased to see her how she was: bunched up in one of the corners, her knees tucked into her body, her skin pale from lack of food and water and covering her eyes from the pain of the light, maybe he thought that she must of learned what ever lesson he wanted her to.

"Feeling better are we?"

Without a word she lowered her hand and nodded slowly, it had been so long since she had talked and she did not want to give him the pleasure of hearing how weak her voice must be right now. All she wanted to do was get out of here and back into her bed, she had missed everything about life out side of this room.

"Good" he said with a small nod "and you are never going to do anything else like that again are you?"

She shock her head and he frowned.

"I'm sorry, I don't think that I can hear you. Answer me when I talk to you Pansy"

She slowed painfully and grimaced, she hated doing what he asked but she wanted to get out of here too much to try and be smart with him.

"No" she finally croaked, she had been right in thinking her voice would sound weak and unused, it sounded painfully small even to her own ears. "I will never do something like that again"

"So you admit it" he said "You took the book from me?"

"Yes, it was me"

He sighed and walked towards her slowly, she back away more and wanted to cry, she did not want him to get too close to her. She had been wrong to think that there was still something good about him. No one that was good would of even thought about doing what he did to her. He leaned down in till his eyes were level with hers. She wanted to look away but as soon as her eyes locked with his she found that she could not look away, there was something so dark in them that she did not trust what he would do if she did not look at him.

"I am so disappointed in you" he muttered "You know that what you did was wrong?"

"Yes"

"And you are never going to do anything like that again are you?"

"No, never again. I promise"

"And your going to distance yourself from Granger and Weasley and let me get on with my little game aren't you?"

"Yes"

He nodded before straightening up and offering her his hand with a small smile. She hesitated but quickly took hold of his hand when she saw his eyes darken in annoyance, she just wanted to forget about this whole thing.

"Good girl. I knew you had more common sense then that" he said as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and started moving her to the door "Now lets get out of here. I happen to know that there are some people who are waiting to see you my dear"

"Blaise?" the small question was out of her mouth before she could even think about it and when he smiled she wished that she had not said anything at all, she did not want him to know that there was someone that she cared for. He would only try and find some way to use it against her in the future.

"That's right" he laughed "That little want to be hero has been very worried about you. He really cares about you"

Even though it was Draco saying it the thought of Blaise caring about her made her heart skip a beat, he had been all that she had been thinking about lately.

"But before we see him I think that there is something that you need to understand" the grip he had on her tightened and she bit her lip to stop herself from yelling out load, the lack of food had made her weaker then normal. "He is helping me at the moment and while there is something that I want then it needs to be the first thing that he is thinking about. I am sure that you can see how I worry that his feelings for you could get in the way of what I want. I never allow things to get in my way. You leave him alone and I am sure that everything will be alright"

She could feel her eyes slowly filling with tears and she looked away from him, she did not want him to see. She hated crying but she found that she could not help herself, there always seemed to be something getting in her way when it came to Blaise and herself, all she wanted was him, not some big war between the light and dark side getting in the way.

"Do we understand one another?" he asked as he gently turned her face beck to his, her tears spilled from her eyes as she tried to blink them away. He watched her tears as they slowly moved from her eyes to her chin and silently fell but his face showed no sign of emotion.

"Pansy?" he said when she remained silent.

"Yes" she finally muttered "I understand. I'll s-stay away"

He leaned over and gently kissed her forehead, if anyone had seen it then they would of thought that it looked almost caring but Pansy could feel it, the true hate that was in it.

"That's my good girl"

"_Please mummy, I'll be good, I swear I'll be good!"_

"_I'll always be good mummy. I love you"_

"_I love you too, my good little girl"_

"_That's my good girl"_

For once Pansy wished that she could do something for herself.

**Hope you liked it! I know that Draco is coming off to be more evil then some people would like but he needs to be for this story to work, I will admit that I have never made him like this before but writing it is so much fun!**

**Haraldzidla xx**


	12. Our perfect friends

**I want to thank all of you for your wonderful reviews! They really are making this story a joy to write and I am sorry that this is taking****so long to get up. People have been saying about how dark Draco seems in this and yes, this is not what I normally do, but it just seemed to happen. I love his character this way and don't worry he will start to change soon.**

**This chapter is for my lovely betta, .18 (I promise there will be more Hermione and Draco, I just needed this to happen for the rest of it to make sense!) and Snow Charms (your review made me laugh :D )**

**I do not own these Characters!**

**Chapter Twelve**

**Our perfect friends.**

**Day Eleven.**

"Remember" Draco warned "if you breathe a word of this to anyone then I promise you that it will do you more harm then good in the end."

Pansy simply nodded while keeping her eyes on the ground, the last twenty four hours of her life had taken everything from her and she could feel her body starting to slowly shut down. She was tired, hungry and a wreck, right then she knew that she had no energy to fight him. No matter what happened he was going to end up winning, this was something that she was slowly starting to learn.

"Good" Draco said with a satisfied smile "god knows that the last thing I need is you messing up my plans again."

Without another word he turned started to walk away, Pansy was so shocked by his sudden and unannounced departure that she couldn't stop herself from calling out to him.

"You're leaving me here?"

Draco looked back with an amused smile on his face and Pansy could feel her cheeks burning, she had no idea why she had even thought for a second that he would have walked her back to the common room, some times she wished that she had never said anything in the first place.

"Of course I am. You are a big girl now and I am more then sure that you can handle walking yourself back. I have better things to be doing, like finding Granger and trying to fix the mess that you have made. Besides," he added with a sneer "you look a mess, the last thing I need is be seen with someone like _you"_

He walked away and this time Pansy made no move to try and stop him, she simple looked down at herself and sighed. It wasn't her fault but he had been right in saying that she looked a mess. Her uniform was creased and messy from the small damp room and she did not even want to think about what her face and hair must look like without makeup and a good wash. The sun had only just come up but Pansy knew that the rest of the students would be waking up soon and making their way to the Great Hall. If she was going to make it to the common room without being seen then she was going to have to be quick about it.

Reluctantly she started to make her way there, while the prospect of food, a change of clothes and a shower seemed like heaven she also knew that Blaise and Theo were going to be waiting for her when she arrived. They may not have been the best of friends in the last few months but she couldn't help but think they had their reasons for doing so, they had been friends for so long, and surely they would not have turned on her unless they had their reasons for doing so?

Her mind turned to Draco and she sighed, then again maybe they had as well.

*

"She is going to be alright"

Theo had been saying the same thing every few minutes for the last four hours and now it seemed to be an automatic reactions to his friends worried looks, the words had been said so many times that he no longer knew who he was saying them to his friend or himself.

"She is going-"

"I know!" Suddenly Blaise was standing from his chair and was pacing up and down in front of the fire place with his hands behind his back, he had no idea how long they had been sitting here and waiting for Pansy to return but it seemed too long to him, she should have been back by now. Draco could have changed his mind or she could have been hurt so much that he didn't want people to see what kind of state she was in. He could feel him temper rising and closed his eyes while trying to calm himself down, just the thought of the things that he could of done to her was enough to make him want to go insane.

"I'm sorry" Theo muttered from his seat "I know that I keep on saying the same thing but I just have no idea what to do"

"I know" Blaise sighed "I don't know what to do as well"

Suddenly they heard it, the sound that they had been waiting for all morning, the common room door opened and there she was, standing in the door way. At first Blaise had no idea what to do, she looked a mess. Her clothes were ripped in some places and dark marks could be seen all over them, she looked paler then she normally did and he did not think that he had even seen her eyes look that sad before.

"Pansy?"

Pansy's P.O.V

I had no idea what to do, they were both standing there, looking at me like they had never seen me before, it had to be at least seven in the morning and while I had thought that they might of been up but there had been a part of me that had hoped that they were tucked up in bed. At least no one else had seen me, I had been lucky this morning and managed not to run into any body yet but it seemed that my small amount of luck had just run out when I needed it the most.

"Pansy?"

I had missed him in the few hours that I had been away, he had not been the best to me in the last few months but I had never stopped caring about him and something about the way he was looking at me made me think that he had never stopped caring about me as well. At that moment I wanted nothing more then to run into his arms and tell him everything that had happened, that I love him, I would cry and say how sorry I was and tell him that I didn't want this war or the Dark Lord, I would say that all I wanted was him. But then I remembered what Draco had said and my eyes started to fill with tears, there was always going to be something that I wanted and it was always going to be the one thing that would never be mine. At times like this the Dark Lord was the one who said who you married and why and I knew that Blaise and I would never be together like we wanted to be. It seemed that no one was going to get the happy ending that they wanted so badly.

"Is there something that I can help you with?"

No ones P.O.V

Both boys looked taken back for a second; they shared a look and seemed to be thinking the same thing as one another. They didn't think that she would be this cold with them once she came back. It seemed weird that she could look such a mess but still be able to stay so emotionless in front of them.

"We just wanted to make sure that everything was alright with you, you know after-"

"Yes, everything is fine. It's so nice of you to suddenly start caring" she sneered while making her way across the room, she was limping slightly. Blaise frowned and stepped forward to help her but she pulled away as soon as his hand touched hers "I don't need any man to help me Blaise!"

The dark haired boy looked hurt for a second before he nodded slightly and slowly lowered his arm and moved away, he had no idea what had happened to her but something told him that asking her loads of questions was not going to get him any where, it never did when it came to some one as stubborn as she was.

"Alright Pansy...do you need anything?"

"From you?" she asked as she paused outside the stair case that lead to her dormitory "No, I really don't think that I need anything from you two. There are some things that I had to attend to this morning so if you don't mind I think I will be on my way"

"Of course" Theo nodded "You will need your rest after everything that has happened"

"What I need is for you to leave me alone and stop acting like I am going to die. I have no idea what you think happened to me but I can say that it is not as bad as you are making out and to be honest, I really don't think it has anything to do with you"

Before they could even think about what to say she was walking up the stairs and the sound of her footsteps could be heard threw out the common room until they finally faded away into nothing.

"He must of done something" Blaise finally said to break the silence, he quickly looked around to Theo and gazed at him desperately "he must of said something to make her hate us, she wouldn't be like this normally, right?" when he didn't answer he spoke again "right? Theo?"

Theo sighed and turned to his chair before answering, while he liked to think that she had a good reason for being so cold to them he wasn't so sure. Things had changed so much in the last few years and some times he wasn't even sure if being mean to someone was an act or if that's how he really felt about them. It was like no one knew their own emotions any more.

"She may of" he reluctantly answered "but you have to understand that she may just be in shock, even if he hadn't done anything to her the thought of us being so nice to her has to be very odd for her. We have spent so much time acting like we didn't care that she may have started to think that it was what we really felt about her"

"Alright" Blaise said with a small nod "then we are going to have to show her that we care. That's it, I'll do it right now" he started to walk to the stair case with a determined look on his face "I will do, I will go up there and tell her that we care about her and then she will understand why-"

"Wait" Theo said before he could take another step "I don't that that is the best idea right now. Think about it Blaise. I know that you want her to understand that we are doing all of this for a reason but she can't know that. No one can know that and the war could be in motion for years still. It's just not time for her to know yet"

Blaise looked at him for a second before nodding and returning to his seat, he hated the fact that his friend had a point.

"Yeah I know" he muttered as he placed his head in his hands "It's just all too much some times, what are we meant to do?"

"We get rid of the problem" Theo replied like it was the most simplest thing in the world "right now the problem is Draco and his little power trip he is on, all we have to do is get rid of his power and then he is useless"

"Yeah, right. And just how are we meant to be able to do that?"

"Don't worry" Theo replied with a small smirk "I have a plan"

*

"Hermione I don't see her anywhere here"

Hermione Granger sighed before putting down her knife and fork, all morning Ginny had been looking for any sign of Pansy and every few minutes she would turn round and repeat herself. She could understand why her friend was worried but it still seemed odd that she was frantically looking for someone that she had hated only a few days ago. They were currently sitting in the Great Hall and eating breakfast. Or at least she was trying to. Hermione leaned over in order to talk to Ginny; she did not want to risk Harry and Ron over hearing them.

"Ginny stop worrying about it, it hasn't even been twenty minutes yet. I told you yesterday that if we don't see her today then we will make sure that we got to Dumbledore and tell him everything that we know about it"

Ginny nodded before biting her lip and looking down at her plate, she knew that it was silly to be this worried about nothing but she couldn't seem to shake the feeling that something was wrong here.

"But...Hermione what if it's too late? What if she needs us now?"

"And what if she doesn't need our help Ginny? We don't even know if something is wrong"

"I know but I have this weird feeling that something is wrong. I really do think that she might be in trouble"

Hermione nodded thoughtfully, she tried to think about a secret meaning behind what she had over heard but still her mind could not come up with anything.

"I know, but I really don't think that there is any real danger behind what they were talking about. We have another meeting tonight and if I am right then she should be there. At least wait in till then until you start thinking that something terrible has happened. You'll see" she said as she leaned back in her chair and smiled at her friend "everything will be alright and then you will wonder why you even worried about her"

Much to her disappointment Ginny didn't bother to smile back but simply nodded and looked back at her untouched breakfast. Something told Hermione that it was going to be a long day.

*

Hermione looked down at the book in front of her and sighed, she had been trying to read the same line for the last ten minutes and it seemed like she was not going to be getting any where with her homework today, even the relaxing feeling of the library seemed unable to help her today. All she seemed to be able to think about was Ginny and how worried she had been this morning. Knowing her luck Pansy would end up not showing up today and she would be stuck with her promise of going to see Dumbledore with Ginny.

Normally she would have loved to help someone that was in danger but it seemed so...unlikely that there really was anything wrong. It had always been easy to see that Pansy had never really cared about how this task worked out and so of course she was going to end up missing some of the meetings. Hermione was sure that if she has no one to work with but two Slytherin's then she would end up doing the same thing.

With the feeling of defeat in her mind she closed her book and looked at the clock that was hanging on the wall in front of her. She still had a few hours before she had to meet Ginny (and hopefully Pansy) and with her mind not being able to focus on one thing she found herself wondering what she was going to do in her sudden spare time.

_Maybe I should go and see Harry and Ron..._

The thought entered her mind but she still remained seated. While it was true that her friendship had been going through some trouble because of the amount of time that she had been spending with them she didn't seem to be able to force herself to see them right. She was always going to love them like brothers but the chance to have some silence and not listen to their pointless talks was too tempting to let go.

_Or, _her mind whispered _you could always try and find Pansy before the meeting starts so you can stop worrying._

Without having to think about it she started to pack away her books, all she would have to do was see Pansy, she wouldn't even have to speak to her to see if she would be alright, for now seeing her was going to enough to put her mind to rest.

"Granger, fancy seeing you here" Hermione looked up to see Draco Malfoy standing there, a small smile on his face and a green book in his hands "do you mind if I sit here?"

"Of course not" Hermione replied when she found her voice "you are more then welcome to"

Hermione never thought that she would be sitting in the library with him but as her mind wondered back to the day that she had been saved from Blaise and Theo and found herself sitting back down and forgetting all about Pansy, there was still a lot more that she had to find out about him.

There still seemed something odd about this.

"Oh" Draco said when he spotted the bag that was hanging on her shoulder.

"were you just leaving?"

"No" Hermione replied as she took the bag off she should and placed the books on the table once more "I did think about it but changed my mind last second. I still have some hours before I have to see my friends"

He smirked before focusing his attention back to his book and Hermione closed her eyes, there was something about the look he had given her that made her think that he knew she had been lying.

"Speaking of friends I was wondering what happened the other day with you and Pansy"

Draco's smirk suddenly left his face and he could feel her looking at him, with everything that had happened that day he had not even stopped to think that some one might have over heard them while they had been talking. He looked up to see her watching him and was relieved to find that she just looked confused. He already knew that she could not know anything that would ruin his plans.

"Me and Pansy? Oh, I think I know what you mean. You will find that we were not fighting at all. It was Blaise and Pansy that were having the fight. It would seem that they had a slight misunderstanding with each other. I was just there so that the chances of the fight becoming too much were less. On their own they can be very calm people but if you put them in the same room as each other..."

he allowed the sentence to hang and he could see the possibilities running through her mind, it seemed that lying to her was not going to be as hard as he had first thought.

"That's why you took her away then"

Or maybe not.

"What do you mean?"

"Well we heard fighting but when we went out to see what was happening Blaise was by himself, I am assuming that that is because you took her away from him before things could get really bad"

"Yeah" he said with a small smile "you could say something like that"

"Do they fight a lot then?"

He looked thoughtful for a second before he nodded.

"They do now, they used to be real good friends and at some point everyone seemed to think that they were going to be more but nothing ever happened it was like they woke up one day a suddenly hated one another. No one knows why but then again I don't think anyone ever asked them about it" He made sure not to mention that _he_ had been the one who made them turn on each other.

Hermione frowned; she had never stopped to think that there might be someone that Pansy liked. Even now she was finding it hard to think as Slytherin's as people who had feelings and cared about others, it was hard when they were mean to all of the houses, even their own one.

"I would have never thought about those two being a couple"

"Hardly anyone would of, but then again they were very good at hiding it"

"But then again there was a time when everyone thought that you and Pansy were going to become something" she said with her own smile "so I guess you can't believe everything you hear around this school can you?"

Draco allowed himself to think of the few short months that Pansy had taken a liking to him and he shuddered, he had never really found anything wrong with her but there had always been something about her that he found oddly wrong. He didn't believe in love but still his mind had always stopped him from reaching out to Pansy when she openly gave herself to him, it may have been the easy option at the time but it was also the completely wrong one.

"No" he replied "you really can't. There was never anything between us, we were just good friends and we both knew that it would of been a bad idea for us to date. There are some things that friends just shouldn't do. Maybe that is where your relationship with Weasley went so wrong"

Hermione frowned.

"There is nothing wrong with mine and Ron's relationship, we are still good friends after all"

"Oh really" he asked as he leaned back in his chair "It's just that I have not seen you with him, or Potter for that matter in a few weeks now. I was starting to think that you were fighting, or are you just looking for a break from all of the adventures that they manage to get you into Granger?"

Not liking where this was going and hating that he seemed to be right she tried to change the subject.

"Been watching me have you?"

"I might of been, you'll never really know, will you?"

She looked up from her book and opened her mouth to reply when suddenly she found that she couldn't. As soon as she looked into his eyes it felt like something had hit her in the stomach and she couldn't breathe right, she was breathless. She had seen him a million times before but something about this seemed different. His eyes seemed so dark yet they were bright at the same time and she wasn't able to look away from them no matter how hard she tried to and if she didn't know better then she would have thought that he was having the same problem that she was. He was no longer smirking and his gaze was more intense and serious then she could even remember seeing it. Draco looked down at her lips for a second before returning to her eyes, he had the sudden need to kiss her and he had no idea why.

It would have been so easy to lean over and put his lips on hers.

He didn't even have to think twice.

They both slowly started to lean closer.

"Draco?"

Hermione let out a small squeal of panic before leaning back to see Blaise standing there with his arms crossed and his eyes on the floor.

"I was wondering if I could have a word with you."

Draco scowled at Blaise before picking up his book and starting to walk out of the room like nothing happened, Blaise quickly followed but not before glancing back at a confused looking Hermione Granger.

*

What the hell just happened?

The thought had been wondering threw Draco's mind for the last few minutes, had he really been about to kiss her? All he wanted to do was mess around with her, not kiss her. If he had known that something like that would happen then he would never have done any of this in the first place, he thought about it once more and shuddered.

The last thing he needed to taste in his mouth was mudblood.

He would never be able to wash it out.

It wasn't in till they were a good distance away from the library that he finally stopped walking and turned around to look at Blaise.

"What do you want now? It better not be something to do with Pansy. I did as you asked and returned her to you. I never said what condition she would be in."

"I know, it nothing to do with her. Believe me after how she was this morning I really couldn't care less. I was more thinking along the lines of my payment"

Draco frowned.

"You're what?"

"My payment" Blaise repeated "You said that if we help you then you would give us something in return and now I want my payment"

Draco smirked.

"This should be good"

Blaise smiled to himself _Oh it will be; _he thought _you have no idea._

**Thank you for reading**** please review!**

**Haraldzidla xx**


	13. Perfectly caught

**Hey every, just a few quick things.**

**1) I want to say thank you to everyone who has been reviewing, I love getting all of the feed back for this and it really helps me in the long run, please if you read this chapter review for me!**

**2) I have been worrying about this story and if I have been rushing if, please if you think so then let me know. Also there is going to be LOADS of Hermione and Draco in the next few chapters, I promise!**

**3) My betta and I have been having some problems with getting chapters to each other so this had not been looking over by her as well as me so please forgive me for the mistakes and I promise to fix them as soon as I can!**

**I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER**

**Chapter Thirteen **

**Perfectly caught **

**Day Eleven.**

"No"

Blaise leaned back in his chair and sighed, he had known that there had only been a slim chance of convincing Draco but he still couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed. No matter how many times he asked and no matter what manner he worded the question the answer always remained the same.

He looked over to Theo and his friend smiled slightly in encouragement, this had to work, it was the only option they had left.

"Do you believe me to be an idiot Blaise?" Draco asked from his seat across the table, they had been speaking for over an hour now and both were starting to grow tired of having the same conversation so many times.

"I never said that" Blaise calmly replied.

"By asking this of me and thinking that I would say yes I believe that you may as well of been"

"It was never my intention and you know it, my mind doesn't work the same way yours does. I was simply asking something that would help you in the long run and something that I believe would end up working to both of our advantages"

Draco looked thoughtful for a second as he watched his friend, the offer was one of the most tempting that he had ever come across but like every great gain in life it could bring him a great loss.

"You do understand" Draco said slowly "that the unbreakable vow is not something to be taken lightly. If one of us did not keep to our ends of the deal then it could end with one of our deaths"

Blaise nodded.

"All the more reason to do it then. I'm not going to lie. I don't trust you and I know that you do not trust me. I'm offering you my services here Draco, anything you need to help you with Granger could be yours without any question or hesitation. You could ask me to make her life hell and I would have to do it."

"Its tempting" Draco said "but the million Gallon question here is why would you do this?"

"As I said before I do not trust you, just as you do not trust me. This is the same offer that you asked of my only a week ago, its just a bigger thing on the line"

_A slave._

The thought kept on repeating itself over in his head and Draco sighed, there was so much that he could gain from this, so much that he could do to Granger and she would have no idea that it was him. He would be there the whole time and she would never have any reason to think that he was behind anything.

_A slave. A controlled fully loaded slave._

Before he had time to rethink it he held out his hand and smirked.

"You have yourself a deal"

Blaise smiled to himself and took hold of the boys hand, it seemed greed got you no where and once again it had proved to be Draco's weak point. He looked at Theo and nodded slightly as the boy walked towards them with his wand in his hand, getting ready to do the unbreakable vow that was going to change everything for them.

*****

Pansy held her side as she walked down the corridor, her whole body had been hurting for more hours then she could count and while she wanted nothing more then to be in her bed right now she knew that Draco would be mad at her if she missed another meeting. She shivered as she thought about what he would do if she let him down again.

Her mind wondered slightly as she thought about what she could say to Hermione and Ginny, she would have to have some kind of reason as to why she was not there yesterday.

"_Just say you couldn't be bothered" _her mind whispered _"say that you had better things to be doing. You never cared about them before so why start now?"_

She nodded to herself as she came closer to the class room door, her not being bothered seemed believable, even to herself.

She took a deep breath before straightening up, a small groan escaped her lips and she cursed under her breath. It hurt her back but the last thing she needed was for them to think that something was wrong. With the small amount of energy she had in her she pulled her bag tightly into her right shoulder and pushed open the door.

Just as she expected Hermione and Ginny were already there books closed in front of them and their faces set in frowns. They quickly looked to the door when she entered and for a second Pansy was sure that they looked slightly shocked to see her there.

"_They know something is wrong" _her mind whispered in warning _"act normal. Act like the you they know"_

Careful not to make eyes contact with them she slanted over to the table before slamming her bag on the door, harshly pulling the chair away from the table and sitting down with a slight slouch that made her back feel better.

"Hello Pansy"

Pansy kept on her eyes on the table and didn't bother to reply to Ginny's greeting.

"Busy yesterday were we?" Hermione asked with clear annoyance in her voice. Pansy smirked and finally looked up at Hermione, she found it easier to lie to her then Ginny and she had no idea why. Maybe it would because she had been nicer to her in the time that they had spent with one another then Hermione had been.

"You say something like that" Pansy said with a small snort "but then again now that I think about it I just had better things to be doing then hanging out with two losers like yourselves"

Hermione scowled.

"Yes well try not to make a habit out of it, or I will have to let someone know that you are not doing your part of this project"

"Whatever. Can we just get this over and done with, like I said I have better things to be doing with my time then sitting with you two"

Hermione nodded curtly and started the meeting, to Pansy it seemed like it was never going to end. She could see Hermione's lips moving but it felt like she couldn't hear anything and all she could think about was the red haired girl sitting next to her who was clearly trying to hold back tears.

Pansy tried to ignore the nagging feeling in the back of her mind.

She had hurt Ginny, someone who had wanted to be her friend.

Suddenly that seemed to hurt more then anything Draco Malfoy could ever do.

*****

**Day Twelve.**

"Don't be so hard on yourself"

"No, I should be. Only someone like me could think that she had changed"

"Ginny anyone could of thought that something was wrong"

"But you didn't did you? You told me so many times that she was the person that we always thought she was and you were right. It was me who had her all wrong"

Ginny cold feel tears forming in her eyes and she forced them away he had no idea why this was upsetting her so much but there was something in the back of her mind telling her that this was all wrong, that there was something that she was missing.

"I promise that I will listen to you next time Hermione. I won't let these silly ideas enter my head again"

Hermione sighed and put her arm around her friend, they were heading down to breakfast once more and with many other students walking around them they both knew that no one would have a chance to over hear what they were talking about.

"Ginny there is nothing wrong with what you thought. I wish that I was more like you some times. It must be nice to be able to see the good in everyone"

"Yeah" Ginny whispered "Its really good. More like really foolish"

*****

"Draco!"

Draco turned around to see Blaise running after him with a small smile, he waited for his friend to catch up before he carried on walking with Blaise by his side.

"I have been looking for you all morning. There is something that I have to show you" Blaise said eagerly. Draco went to turn right when Blaise pulled on his arm lightly "No, this way. Its Granger"

Draco smile in understanding as he followed the dark haired boy, his first order had been for Blaise to find out everything he could about her but he had never thought that he would find something good so soon.

They walked in silence in till they came to a plain wooded door and Draco frowned slightly as he looked at it, he did not remember this being here.

"Come on" Blaise whispered as he opened the door and walked in side while waiting for Draco to follow, trying not to seem worried Draco nodded before following him in side.

The door closed behind him with a grate slam and the room was filled with sudden darkness that made Draco's heart leap, something was wrong here. He spun around to look for Blaise but it was no use, the room was so dark that he could not see his hand in front of his face. While listening closely to the sounds around him Draco slowly reached for his wand, with a sudden feeling of dread he found that it was not in his pocket that he had placed it in this morning. Something was defiantly wrong here. He listen to the silence for a moment longer before calling out his friends name, he did not want to think that someone he thought he could trust slightly had turned on his but considering all he had done he did not find the thought unlikely in the slightest.

"Blaise?"

His questioning voice echoed off he four walls around him and was met with a stony silence. He took a deep breath and tried to reaming calm as he tried once more.

"You there?"

"Of course I am"

Draco jumped slightly but made no noise as he quickly turned to where Blaise's voice had came from. All he could think about was how defenceless he was without his wand in his hand.

"What's going on?" Draco demanded with what he hoped was a demanding voice "what is the meaning of this?"

"What's wrong Draco?" Blaise asked was some amusement in his voice "Your not scared are you?"

"Of course not!" Draco sneered "But I suggest you tell me what is happening before I lose my tempter with you"

"Now, now Draco, there is no need to get mad now is there?" Blaise asked in a tone that one would use when talking to a child "Besides I wouldn't get too high on your horse, after all you have no wand"

"You took it"

"Indeed, and oh yes, there is one more thing"

There was a small clicking sound and suddenly lights burst into the room and Draco could feel his mouth dry as he looked around the room, Blaise was standing in front of the door along with several other people from his house and each of them had their wand pointing at his chest.

"I believe that you are slightly out numbered as well"

Draco took a step back and only stopped when his back hit the stone wall and he could not longer move, all of his friends were standing there. Crab, Goyle, Blaise, Theo, Flint and a few other people that he had never had the time to talk to but one thing was the same, each one belonged to Slytherin.

"What's the meaning of this?"

"We don't want to hurt you Draco" Theo said "so we will warn you once, all we want to do is have a small talk to you, but if you try anything then we will make a move, do you understand?"

"What's this about?"

Theo ignored him and calmly asked the question once again, getting slightly worried and feeling that he had no other choice Draco gave a small nod. They watched his for a second longer before Blaise lowered his wand and the others followed his lead. Draco looked at his wand for a second before looking away, he knew that there was nothing he could do to over power this many people without his wand but he still had to stop himself from doing something silly. He would make sure that they paid later.

"We're sorry that it had to come to this Draco" Flint said without looking sorry at all "but we really do think that this had to be done after what you have done. We have stayed on the side lines and watched this for long enough and we will not allow this to happen any longer, not after what you did to Pansy"

It took a second for Draco to realise what he had said and when the words fully slinked in her blinked twice and finally asked:

"Your telling me that you are doing this because of _Pansy?"_

"No" Blaise replied coldly "we are doing this because you have gotten out of hand, you promised me a favour and his, my friend, is it"

"What's it?"

"We'll be getting to that Draco but first I think that there are a number of things that you have to understand first. Surely you must be wondering what we are all doing here?"

Draco raised one of his eyebrows and tried to make it look like he did not care.

"The thought had passed my mind for a second, yes"

"We are the people who don't want the war Draco, the ones who never got the chance to pick what side they were going to be one but the ones who were forced to be on the side of the dark because it is what our parents expected of us. We don't want the same as the dark lord and so it has come to this. We want to fight on the side of the light with Dumbledore"

Draco could feel his mouth open from shock but he made no move to correct himself, he was still trying to understand what they were trying to tell him. This could not be happening, if there was one thing that he had been sure about then it was those who agreed with the dark lords views and now, suddenly and without no warning, he found that he really did not know a thing about what his old friends wanted. When had this happened?

"You have got to be joking?" Draco asked when he finally found his voice, Blaise did not answer but from the serous look on his face and the way his features did not change in the slightly Draco already knew the answer himself.

"Why? Why are you doing this?"

"We could ask you the same Draco, why are you on the side of the dark? Was it something that you picked for yourself or something that you did because your father expected nothing else from you?"

"I want this, you know I had always wanted this from myself, I once thought that same about all of you" Draco replied coldly.

"Are you sure about that? Because I seem to remember a young boy that had no idea what he wanted. You used to have no idea where you life was going and then suddenly you want nothing more then to be a Death Eater. A murder."

"Blaise!"

"What?" Blaise asked angrily "Don't act like you don't know what I mean, that's what a Death Eater is, a simple murder who follows orders from someone that is more powerful then them because they are scared"

Draco could feel his temper rising and his hands had turned into fists at some point, with a great effort he looked away from them all and at he stone floor instead, now was not the time to lash out at any of them.

"What does this have to do with me? You already know that I could turn you all in as traitors to the dark lord"

"Traitors Draco?"

"Yes" he spat "Traitors, you know that you are all promised to the dark lord, your parents have promised you all to him"

"I know" Blaise said with a thoughtful nod "that's part of our problem, we don't get to pick and as from now the same thing goes for you my friend"

For a second Draco could of sworn that his heart stopped beating, suddenly his mind when back to the other day when he had promised Blaise a favour, when he had been too blinded by his need for his help that he had done an unbreakable vow, something that he should of never even thought about doing. At the time is seemed so simple, he merely thought that he would ask for Draco to leave Pansy alone but not this, never had he thought that his friend would do something like this.

"Please don't say that-"

"You made the unbreakable Draco and if you will not help yourself willing them I will do it for you, one way or the other. You have to be safe and if it means double crossing you like this then so be it"

"Don't do this"

"Your one of us now. Draco Malfoy, I, Blaise Zabini, am now calling on the promise you owe me. From this moment on you work for the light, you will help those who need you and you will tell no one about this"

A bright light lit the room and Draco looked at his right hand that had been the force, there was a small white line on his hand for the slightest of a second, almost like it had been burned there without pain and then it was gone. Draco was finding it hard to breath, the promise had been made and if he did not follow it then he would die.

His friend was making him fight for the light or die.

"You tricked me"

"Yes" Blaise said calmly "I did. In fact I like to think that we all did"

"How could you do this to me of all people?"

"Simple" Blaise said with a shrug "you were getting out of hand"

"I thought we were friends?" Draco muttered, he hated how hurt he sounded but shock seemed to over took everything else in his body. He could not believe that this was happening to him. He knew where he wanted his life to go and here they were, all of the people that he had once thought shared the same idea as him, taking it away within seconds.

"We were, always have been, ever since we were children." Blaise replied calmly "There isn't a Slytherin in this year who does not know each other through our fathers, all the times they would get together and have their little meetings while we were away in our rooms with one another to play. Its always been us Draco and even if you did not know, you were always the one that we looked up to"

"Why didn't you come to me then? When you were having all these doubts, you could of talked to me about them!" Draco hissed angrily.

"We did! We tried and as I remember it not so many years ago you were having them just as much as we all were. You go scared like us and every day you would say how much you hated what your father did. We were there for each other but you changed! I know you can't see it but we are the same people on the in side that we have always been but one summer you went away with your father and when you came back…you had changed into someone that we didn't know anymore. Into someone that to be honest I'm not sure I would even want to know"

There was a moment of silence in which the two boys blocked out everyone else around them, for those few seconds it seemed like they were the only two there. Blaise wanted Draco to understand more then anything else and Draco was hoping that this was some kind of lie, anything other then this.

He couldn't lose control.

He _never _lost control.

"So what?" Draco laughed, the last thing he needed was for them to think that they were getting to him some how, it was like his father had always told him, showing emotion was a sigh of weakness "I hardly changed, its called being realistic Blaise, you should try it some time!"

"It's called being like your father!" Blaise snapped before he could help himself, this is not how he thought that this would turn out, he wanted everything to work out, not get worse "You became bitter and mean and would turn on the people that you used to call friends in a second if you thought that it would make you stand out from the others! You could never understand why we wanted so little to do with your plans but do you understand now? Do you understand why we want this?"

"No" Draco sneered "I don't think I could ever understand people who would fight for mudbloods"

"Then that's a problem isn't it? The difference between you and me my friend. While you listened to your fathers ideas of the future we are doing what we want to and not what we have to for once in our lives. The sad thing is that your so far gone that you can't even see what they have done to you, they have brainwashed you so much that you think this is what you want"

"I know what I want Blaise!"

"What would that be Draco? Death? To be a murder? Is that the kind of person that you want to turn out to be? Can you not even see that we are trying to save you?"

"There is nothing to be saved from!" Draco growled.

"Yes there is! Voldemort! Your father! Death Eaters!"

"Our families!"

"No! Our masters! They are no good for us, all we are to them are tools to try and make the dark lord proud of them. This is not our war this is theirs" Blaise replied.

Another moment of silence passed and not for the first time that day Draco found himself not knowing what to say.

"They are doing it for us"

"No, they are doing it for themselves. They care about the hear and now, not what life is going to be like in ten years. As long as they are remembered what do we matter to them?"

"Your all going to die"

"We might" Blaise replied without emotion and a small nod of acceptance "but if we do then your going to have to go down with us. When the time comes to fight you will be with us and the side that we stand on and hopefully, when that dark day comes you'll be there fighting with is because you want to and not because you have to"

"Your taking it away from me. My family, my money" Draco practically yelled without trying to hide his anger "Your taking away my bloody name!"

"No Draco" Blaise replied calmly "we are not taking anything away from you. We are taking you away from them. There is a big difference. Maybe one day you will be able to see that"

"Never" Draco yelled "I will never think like you do!"

"Then your in for a few hard months Draco"

Without another word Blaise nodded to his fellow Slytherin's and start to walk to the door, they had done what was needed and Draco needed some time alone to think about what they had said. He silently opened the door and allowed the others to go ahead of him, there was still one more thing that needed to be said. He turned back around to see Draco standing with his back to him, his hands were held in tight fists by his side and his shoulders were shaking slightly in anger.

"There is one more thing that I have to say to you before I go Draco and then I'll leave you alone to think about everything"

"_What?" _Draco asked without turning around "What else is there that you could possibly have to say to me Blaise?"

"Just this. We are friends and we have always been friends. But even so, if you do anything ever again to try and turn Pansy then you will have me to answer to and as you might now be able to tell I am no longer playing games. I mean it this time. If something happens to her, even if it had nothing to do with you I will kill you without even thinking about it."

"You still love her then? Becoming a silly hero for love are we?"

"You would be shocked what things people would do to protect those they love Draco"

"Like turning on your friends?"

"I never turned on you Draco, you turned on us. But yeah, love can make your whole life change" he laughed slightly and leaned against the wall why he thought about what had gotten him to where he was today, as soon as he had known that he had feelings for his close lest female friend, everything had changed from the very start "Some times love can even be a persons reason for he side that they had picked"

"So that's it then? You picked the light for her?"

"Mainly, yes. Who knows maybe if you get to know Granger better you'll have your own reason for fighting on our side"

Draco sighed deeply while trying to control his anger.

"I don't think I could ever live someone like her. It's an act. Nothing more"

"For now Draco, for now"

For the second time he turned away but once more found himself turning around, this was what was right for everyone but it still felt wrong to leave his friend like this, even if he had changed so much over the years he was always going to be the caring person that he used to know.

"Are we clear about where you stand with Pansy?"

There was a small silence and Blaise sighed.

"Are we clear Draco?"

"Yeah" Draco muttered into the darkness "We're clear"

Blaise nodded even though Draco could not see him and watch his friend for a second moments before turning his back on him and walking out he door. He hated having to do this to him but some times the only way to get through to someone is to do it the hard way.

**Thanks for reading, let me know what you think! If you review then I will send you a sneak look of a future chapter!**

**Haraldzidla**


	14. Suits me perfectly

**I am so sorry about the wait for this chapter, things are still very busy but you'll be pleased to know that I am already working on the next chapter.**

**Once again this chapter had not been looked over, I am still having trouble getting them to my betta but a replacement will be but up soon to correct any mistakes that I have made.**

**Okay now in this chapter we are going to see a side of Draco that we haven't seen before and I would like to warn you that he seems OC here but I promise that there is a reason for that - on the plus side it will give you a break from the cold hearted Draco that we love to hate!**

**There is going to be another A/N at the end of this chapter so please read it, its important!**

**I DO NOT OWN THIS.**

**Chapter Fourteen**

**Suits me perfectly**

**Day thirteen**

Hermione closed her eyes and allowed her mind to wonder as she laid back onto her bed. She could not believe that almost two weeks had passed since everything had started, and with just a little over a week left to get everything finished she could feel the pressure of the project looming over her.

Trying to find the perfect guy had been more fun when it was something that she had wanted to do rather then something that she had to thought of failing had not bothered her so much when it had been something that she was doing herself but now that she had friends helping her it almost seemed like something more, almost like she had something to prove to them didn't mind working with Ginny and Pansy - well at least she didn't mind working with Ginny - but it seemed that the more Ginny started to get happy about the results the more Hermione became worried about them.

The perfect guy had been someone that she had thought about for a long time and someone that she believe she should meet, after all she was brave, smart and the best friend of Harry Potter, if he was going to meet anyone then it had to be her...at least that was what she hoped. And yet here she was, sitting on her bed with notes from the last two weeks placed all around her and everything seemed to be pointing to the same bloody the really maddening thing about it all was that she simply had no idea why, surely it couldn't be that the person that she had been fighting with for the last five years was not the person that she had been looking for for just as long? Yes, even she had to admit to herself that the idea itself (falling in love with someone from the other side and fighting for your love) seemed romantic but there just also appeared to be something so wrong about the idea as well. The only way something like that would happen is if he changed and moved over to the light side, rather then the dark. But she knew, before the thought had really entered her mind, that nothing like that was going to was on the other would always be on the other matter what her mind secretly wished it was different.

*

"Maybe we just need to have some faith in her. For all we know she could be doing something important"

Ron sighed as he moved his chess piece across the board and defeated yet another one of Harry's pawn. He could understand where Harry was coming from but he just couldn't see why Hermione had stopped spending her time with them all of a sudden. Was there really something more important then their friendship?

"I know Harry" Ron replied in a tired voice "But I am just having trouble coming to terms with what it could be. I mean think about it, me you and Hermione have been threw so much together in the last few years and it makes me wonder what could of suddenly changed for her. Even when she was study for her exams she still managed to find time for us. And you know how much they mean to her"

He added with a fond smile on his face. It had been no secret that he had liked Hermione not so long ago and yes, he had been disappointed when their relationship had not worked but after a while he had become thankful that there were at least friends. Having her in his life was better the nothing.

Now it seemed like her friendship was being taken away from him as well.

"Yeah, I know. I think all we have to do is just give her some time and then when she had done what ever it is that is taken so much of her time everything will go back to normal" Harry said as his mind wondered back to just last year when Ron had turned on his for a few weeks. If they had gotten past that then he knew that they could get past this. "We just need to stop these pointless fights that we keep on having, she may not of been spending time with us but its not like we have been trying to talk to her normally. It's gotten to the point where at meals we only talk to her if she talks to us. Maybe all she needs is the chance to see that we care about her, just like we know that she cares about us"

"Okay, I'll do it"

Harry smiled to himself, when Ron was mad at someone he could never be talked round to changing his mind. I guess this just showed how much he really cared.

*

Draco Malfoy stood out side the exit of Gryffindor common room, his hands placed behind his back and a blank expression on his face. If anyone would of passed and seen him they would of thought that he looked rather calm. They would of been terribly wrong. Inside he felt such anger that he even scared himself slightly, there were simply no words for what he was feeling at that moment. He had never thought that things could go so wrong as that had done in the last twenty fours hours.

He had thought that he was in control of what was happening and not once had he allowed himself to think that someone would of been able to out smart him as they had done and why should he have thought it? Had they not always stood by his side and understood his views and what he wanted out of life? He had always believe that they had wanted the same.

"Damn it" Draco muttered to himself, just as he had done many times before that day. He pushed off the wall and walked a few steps before turning back around to walk back to the wall. He was starting to find it hard to stand still in his current mood. He had been standing in the same place for the last two hours and still she had not come out. He knew that she had to be in there and he had to see her before his time ran out.

He had wasted far too much time on messing around with his plans rather then playing them out. He needed to do something to make him feel like he had some kind of power left in his name and she was going to be the one to make it happen.

If he couldn't do to Pansy then he was going to do it to her.

He was going to make her hurt.

He was going to make her wish that she had never thought about trying to be a witch when she was not one.

He needed to do something and it needed to be done now.

He heard the small click as the door to the common room opened and he quickly jumped back into the shadows, he knew that no one would be able to see him unless he wanted them too. A second passed before he saw what he had been looking for.

Thankfully she was alone and he waiting to look at her before making his presence known. She was holding a few books in her arms like always and wearing muggle cloths that he had seen her in a few times before, light blue trousers that he had seen others wear and a simple light blue shirt that made her hair seem darker when he looked at it.

He had no idea what that was important, but for the slightest of a second it was.

"Granger"

Hermione jumped slightly at the sound of his voice before turning around and trying to unsuccessfully hide the shock on her face, she didn't want to seem rude.

"Oh, Malfoy, hello. What are you doing here?"

Draco smiled as he step forward.

"I was waiting for you"

This time Hermione found that she couldn't help herself as shock ran up and down her body, he had said that in such a matter of fact voice and she was amazed that he could say that like it was something that he did every day.

"Oh" Hermione replied when she could think of nothing else to say.

"I was hoping that I could take you down to The Three Broom Sticks, it is the right week end after all and I do believe that I promised you a drink, did I not?"

Hermione nodded slowly before looking down at the books in her hand and blushing slightly before hugging the books closer to herself, almost like she was trying to hide them from him. It took a second before Draco noticed the third book in the pile and he tried not to scowl, it was the same book that had caused Pansy so much trouble over the passed week. The one that had caused him so much trouble.

"I would love to, just let me go put my books away"

Draco nodded as she disappeared once more.

*

Hermione's P.O.V

Within seconds I was running up to my room as fast as my legs would take me, I had never thought that I would be happy to be in Draco Malfoys company but this seemed almost too perfect. Now I was going to be able to make some progress in my project. Surely I would be able to cross him off my list after this, sure he had the looks that I was looking for but I knew that he would not be able to pass when it comes to his personality. Ignoring the confused looks of my room mates I chucked the books in my bag next to my bed and ran into the bath room to quickly look in the mirror.

The small amount of make up that I had put on this morning was still in place and I knew that it was pointless to try and do something with my hair. I looked down at my self and bit my lip in worry, I was not sure how he felt about me wearing muggle clothing. I stopped my thoughts and frowned, why should I even care what he thought? I was happy about this because I could finally get him off my list, not because I wanted to go out with him. Besides, I thought to myself with one final look in the mirror, I was a muggle born and he was going to have to deal with that.

I managed to get out of the room and out of the common room without being stopped and I was thankful, the last thing that I needed was to be stopped or questioned about where I was going, or, more importantly, who I was going with. Something told me that no matter who I told it wouldn't go down well. Malfoy was waiting in the same place that I had left him and I smiled slightly.

"Well, shall we go then?"

He smirked slightly before offering me his arm and standing up straight.

"We shall"

I hesitated for a second before linking my arm with his and allowing him to lead to down the stairs. We didn't't talk as we walked to the main doors and I was relieved, the few people that we passed shot us a few looks and I could feel my heart racing, I was not sure if I would have been able to talk while I was feeling this on edge about everything. The silence between us was shockingly comfortable and I allowed myself to relax slightly as we got closer to the doors, there was no point in worry myself over nothing. I knew that we were not going to run into Harry and Ron today as they had decided to stay behind this weekend and to me nothing else mattered. I would be able to handle anyone other then them.

"So" Draco suddenly said as we walked out of Hogwarts "I have been thinking and well…I have no idea where you take you" he laughed slightly and I couldn't't help the smile that broke out on my face "Is there any where that you would like to go?"

I thought for a second before replying, I didn't't want to go some where even slightly romantic and while I wanted to avoid other students I also knew that it couldn't't be help when we were so close to the school.

"How about the Three Broomsticks?" I suggested "we could just get a Butterbeer, warm up a bit?"

It wasn't in till the words left my lips that I realised how cold it was, I looked at my bare arms and cursed to myself. How could I not remember to bring a jacket with me? He looked thoughtful for a second before he smiled and looked down at me.

"That's sounds nice and simple. It would seem I was wrong about you Granger, you're my kind of girl" he winked and something inside of me seemed to melt slightly as I blushed. Was he flirting? I had only had a few experiences when it came to boys and Ron had never been much of a flirter when it came to me. Unless you counted yelling as flirting.

Before I knew what was happening we were outside the Three Brooms sticks and he let go of my arm to open the door for me, something that no boy had even done for me before. It was nice. He followed me and closed the door behind him, I felt the warm of the old place take over me and I smiled. It was nice to be in the warm again. He placed his hand on my shoulder and leaned over to whisper in my ear.

"You find a table and I will get the drinks"

I nodded as a small shiver ran up my body from the feel of his hot breath on my ear. I had no idea what was happening but I knew that it wasn't good. It wasn't good at all. Luck seemed to be on my side as I managed to get a small table in the corner next to the warm fire that filled the room. I looked around the room and breathed a sigh of relief as I realised that no one I knew was here, this was easier then I thought it was going to be.

"Here" I looked across the table to see him already sitting and handing me a Butterbeer.

"Thank you" I said with my best smile "That's very nice of you"

He shrugged and leaned back in his chair

"Don't worry about it, its nice that your letting me. I didn't't think that you were going to come with me today to be honest. Considering everything that had happened in the past I would of thought that I would have been the last person that you would of wanted to come fro a drink with"

Rather then agreeing with him, like my mind was telling to me I simply laughed and tried to keep my tone light.

"Yes well I thought that it wouldn't't do any harm, after all you did save me" He looked confused for a second and I thought about how different he looked, almost like he wasn't the person who had made my life hell for years

"Oh yes" he finally said as he realised what I meant "Well I couldn't just let them do something like that to you. Picking on someone is one thing but hurting a women…well, it just isn't right" His face was trouble before he smiled once more "Any way, tell me about yourself"

I was taken back for a second.

"Excuse me?"

"I said, tell me about yourself"

"Yes, I heard you. It's just…well you've known me for years. It just seems like an odd question for you to ask me"

He took a slip of his drink before he answered

"Yes I have known of you and we have…exchanged words in the past but I don't really know you do I? Just as you don't really know me Granger"

There was something in his tone that made me look right into his eyes and once my gaze was there I suddenly found that I couldn't look away from them. I had never noticed how blue they were before, almost like the deepest parts of the sea. Forbidden and tempting. His tone had almost seemed like a challenge and I felt like laughing, if only he knew how much of a challenge he was for me. Wanting to play along I put my drink to one side and leaned across the table with my arms crossed and resting on it, I knew that he could see down my top slightly and I willed my self not to care for a moment.

"Is that so?" I whispered so that he would only be able to hear. He looked shocked for a second before his smirk appeared and he leaned in closed

"It is. There are thing about me that you wouldn't be able to guess, no matter how many times you tried, and the more time I spend with you the more I wonder to myself just how much more then is to you then I think Granger?"

I laughed lightly and licked my lip slightly, just as I had seen Lavender do so many times before and I could of laughed as his eyes darted my wet lips for a second.

"A lot Malfoy. A hell of a lot"

He let out a breath that he seemed to be holding

"Tell me one of them Granger, tell me something about you that I don't know"

I thought about it for a second, would there be any harm in telling him about myself? Before I could reconsider I decided to make him a deal.

"I will if you will"

And that's how I ended up spending four hours talking to Draco Malfoy and leaned more about him then I ever thought I would.

*

The walk back seemed longer then the walk there but I was finding that I didn't mind. I had spent the first five minutes of it laughing as he told me about some of the things that he had done in school. It was growing dark and I knew that we didn't have long to get back to the school before we would be late. Out arms were linked and he stopped suddenly.

"Is something wrong?" I asked when he didn't move.

"No" he answered as he removed his jacket, I watched in confusion before I realised what he was doing.

"Oh no Malfoy, you don't have to-"

"Yes" he cut across me "I do, you have been shivering for the past few minutes, I know that I don't always show it but I was brought up as a gentlemen you know"

Before I could realise what was happening his coat was on me and he linked our arms once more only this time his other hand covered my own that was placed on his arm. It was pleasantly warm and I sighed. I hadnt realised how cold I had been.

"Its your turn to tell me one Granger"

His voice took me out of my thoughts and I nodded "Oh of course well, I took ballet when I was little"

He smirked

"You took ballet?"

I laughed and nodded "Not like me I know but it was something that my mother wanted for me and I wanted to make her happy, she always worried about me when I was little. Although having said that she took me out after a term of lessons"

"Why?"

I blushed and hoped that he wouldn't notice in the dark.

"I kept on hurting myself in the lessons, it would seem that while I had no trouble with learning facts I want so good when it came to dance. I kept on accidentally hurting some of the other students"

Shockingly he didn't laugh and instead frowned.

"You know Granger there is no shame in being bad at some things. I understand that it's hard for parents to comprehend but we can't be good at everything we do"

I smiled and we walked in silence the rest of the way to my common room. His hand never left mine for a second. My mind kept on screaming at me and I tried to ignore it, right now I needed to let things happen rather then think about them too much. Some part of me just needed to know if there was some good in there. A bigger part of me was praying that there was. We finally reached the common room entrance and I tried to ignore the fat lady who was watching us with questioning eyes. He let go of my hand and arm and they suddenly felt cold with out him holding them.

"Well this is me" I said after a shot silence.

He smiled.

"Yes, I know, well…" he hesitated slightly "I guess I will see you tomorrow then. Goodnight Granger"

He started to walk away when my mouth seemed to open on its own.

"Wait!"

He turned around suddenly and walked back over to me in three quick steps, almost like he had been hoping for me to call him back. Before I could say anything else he was in front of me and I seemed to freeze as I saw a look on his face that I had never seen before. In seconds sis right hand was on my waist and his left one reached up to take hold of the back of my neck in a firm grasp.

He pulled me to him lightly and I willing moved closer, a second passed and then his lips were on mine, hard and forceful. Without thinking I rapped my arms around him and held onto his hair for dear life, nothing else seemed to matter but pulling him closer to me. His tongue darted out slightly and I opened my mouth slightly to allow him entrance.

As soon as the kiss deepened I could feel something that I had never felt before and something that scared me and excited at the same time. Suddenly I felt like I needed him more then air, I wanted him more then I had ever wanted anything else. Almost like he had sensed what I wanted he pushed me back slightly and my back hit the wall. His lips moved from mine and were suddenly every where, on my neck, my shoulders and then finally, when I thought it wouldn't get any better he left a hot trail of kiss's down my cleavage before darting his tongue out and lightly licking my skin. A small noise left my mouth and he almost growled before placing his hands on my waist and lifting me up, without thinking I allowed my legs to rap around his waist, I just needed him to be closer.

"Excuse me!"

I froze at the sound of the voice and my cheeks burned as I buried my head in his shoulder, I hadn't meant to forget about the fat lady that much. After a second he let go of my legs and I stood up again but left my head in his shoulder and my arms around his neck. Draco was laughing and as I lifted my head and looked at him I found myself smiling as well.

"Well that wasn't what I had planned" he mutter through his laugher.

I nodded in agreement.

"Your telling me, I only called you back to say that I still had your coat" he looked down and me and laughed louder this time.

"You can keep it" he whispered with a small wink "It looks better on you any way" With a final smirk he kissed my forehead and then he was gone.

*

That night Hermione Granger went to bed with a small smile on her face and she fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. Just like every other night she had said goodnight to her roommates and they had done the same, but unlike every other night her room mates failed to noticed that she had fallen asleep wearing a dark green jacket that they had never seen before.

That suited Hermione Granger perfectly.

**So do you like it? Hate it? Please let me know!**

**After considering my options I do believe that I am going to be putting a stop to fan fiction, yes I will complete this story but I am having some second thoughts about my other one's. I hate to disappoint anyone that may have been reading them but I think it's time. I may still carry them on but I just wanted to let you know that I am unsure tight now. I have a spelling disorder and its getting harder and harder for me to carry on putting my stories up here at my age and making such embarrassing mistakes. I'm just really tired of trying to do something that doesn't seem to be working anymore.**

**Yours,**

**Haraldzidla (Kara)**


	15. Perfectly depressed

**Hey guys, I am so sorry for how late this chapter is. There is no excuse really other then my mind trying to keep myself from writing. I wasn't to sure about keeping my FF open but as you can see I am back for me and I promise to never leave my stories for this long again!**

**Thank you to the following people who reviewed the last chapter: Rosario Lamia HellGirl, Tishica, xxxbubblezxxx, Isabella120, jayd-n33, helios30, tfobmv18 SnowCharms and last but not least cyn23. You all made me write this chapter and remember why I do this: Because I love writing for the fun of it.**

**Chapter Fithteen**

**Perfectly depressed**

**Pansy's POV**

I closed my eyes and tried to let sleep over come me once again but I knew that it was no use, my mind was buzzing too much for me to relax. The sun was shinning brightly through the curtains around my bed and I could tell that everyone else had already left the room, I must of slept longer then I first thought. The room was peacefully quiet and I was thankful to be alone for a while, I was not the best company at the moment and to be honest I didn't think that I could put a smile on my face anymore.

A small flash of darkness came into my mind and I shuddered before burying my head into my pillow and trying to block it out, this was getting to me more then I had thought it would. My eyes started to burn and I could feel my mind weakening, this was not meant to happen to me.

The worst part was that I was not just feeling the pain of what he had done but also the pain of returning to my life like nothing had happened. I had been missing for over twenty four hours and not a single person had noticed.

I wondered why it still shocked me, I had known that no one really cared but I also knew that I was to blame for that. I had spent so many years of my life being mean and making other people feeling like they where nothing that I should of known that one day I would be where they had once been: Alone and helpless, at the mercy of someone that I hardly even knew.

A few more minutes passed before I groaned and finally dragged myself out of bed, as much as I liked mopping in m own self pity I was not going to stay in this room all day. The thought of walking into the Great Hall entered my mind and I paused before standing up…on the other hand there was nothing wrong with simply going to the kitchen and asking the house elves to make me something. After all, they may as well do something useful.

I ran a hand over my face before walking to the bathroom while trying to wake myself up, I hadn't looked at the clock yet but I already knew that breakfast was almost over. I sighed and washed my face, over sleeping seemed to be something that I was doing more and more lately and I knew all too well why.

Life was easier when I was sleeping, I didn't have to think about what had happened then, there was nothing but darkness and silence. I looked in the mirror and held back a groan at the person that I saw looking back at me, I had no idea who she was.

Her skin was deathly pale and dark messy hair was framing her heart shaped face. Her eyes were red and had dark marks under them that made them appear darker then I remembered. Why did it seem like everything had changed in a few short days?

I didn't like who I was turning into. I didn't like what he had done to me and all of these emotions that seemed to be taking over my body. Hurt, pain, guilt and love. I couldn't remember the last time that I had felt any of them. I had never been sorry for anything that I had done, even though I had known that it was wrong I had loved the way I was.

Being cruel and mean had stopped people from hurting me and I had loved it that way. I closed my eyes before taking a deep breath and trying to pull myself together, standing here and feeling sorry about myself wasn't going to help anything. I had no idea what to do but I knew that I had to do something. No body did something like this to me and got away with it.

Not even Draco bloody Malfoy.

* * *

On the other side of the castle another girl, almost the complete opposite of Pansy, was also waking up. Hermione moaned slightly as she woke up and felt her body aching, she must of slept funny. It wasn't in till she had started to get changed that she even started to remember what had happened yesterday and the realisation of what she was wearing hit her.

Draco Malfoys dark green jumper.

This wasn't something to be happy about.

She knew this.

And yet…

A small giggle escaped her as she remembered what had happened, there was nothing good about this but no matter how hard she tried nothing could stop her smile.

Maybe there was more to Draco then she had thought. True she had never thought of him romantically but was there really something so wrong with that? He had calmed down considerably in the last few weeks and she could not understand why he would do that unless he had good reason to. He could be trying to be different. Trying not to be the person that everyone believed him to be.

He may be good.

Hermione let out a sad sigh as she leaned against her bathroom sink and looked in the mirror.

Or, she thought bitterly, you may just be trying to make yourself feel better about kissing and having feelings for a Deatheater.

One of the down falls of being Hermione Granger: you always think rationally.

She thought of the kiss again and smiled…well, most of the time anyway.

* * *

Theo watched with tired eyes as Blaise walked up and down the room, his hands behind his back and a frown in his face. It seemed to be all he was doing lately. He was sure that his friend would of calmed down after they had taken care of Draco but it seemed he had been wrong. He didn't even have to ask what he was worrying about.

"You care about her, don't you? Love her even?"

Blaise stopped walking for the first time in hours and turned to look at his friend with a glazed look in his eyes as he thought about his answer. Both of them knew that he loved her but it had never been something that they had talked about, there had never been any need to. They had just always known.

"How can you even ask me that?" Blaise spat in anger "You know how I feel"

"I thought I did" Theo admitted "but now I'm not so sure. Lately you seem…different, almost like your in shock and not taking everything in. Are you sure you really knew that you loved her…rather then just cared about her?"

Blaise pushed his temper down as he understood what Theo was saying…had he really known how he felt…or had she just been something that he had taken for granted like so many other things?

"I…I think I knew…but it was more" he sighed as he struggled to explain himself before he leaned against the fire place and rested his head on the wall, his eyes closed. "I guess what I am trying to say is that I knew but it never seemed to matter. We've known each other since we were young and so I had always thought that…we had time. Everyone in between just seemed like someone that we were using to pass the time in till…in till we were ready to grow up."

Theo looked away as he saw his friends eyes swell with tears and Blaise couldn't help but feel grateful, he hated to seem weak in front of his friend but he really didn't have the energy to move. He didn't have the energy to do anything more then stand there, crying for the girl that he had taken for granted.

* * *

"Miss Granger!"

Hermione stopped walking at the sound of her name being barked across the corridor by a familiar sharp voice, she considered pretending she had not heard for a few seconds before she turned and forced a smile on her face. Professor McGonagall was standing there, her lips set in a frown.

"Yes Professor?" Hermione asked with a small frown as she wondered if she had done something wrong. Her mind ran threw everything she had done in the last few days but she came up with nothing.

"I just thought I would see how this project of yours was coming along, you don't have that much loner left"

Hermione nodded and tried not to look too worried, she was well aware that they didn't have much more time left.

"It's going well. I don't see any problems with meeting the dead line you gave us"

"Good" she said with a thoughtful look on her face. "Tell me something Miss Granger how are you finding working with Miss Parkinson? I was slightly worried that there maybe a few…"

"Fights?" Hermione asked "there have been. Many of them. But we're still working, I think we all knew that this was going to be hard. We have nothing in common and there are times when it shows. To be honest Professor…I just want to get this finished and be done with it"

McGonagall looked almost sad for a second before she smiled tightly and nodded her head, a signal that Hermione could go. As the teacher watch one of her favourite students walking away she couldn't help but wonder if she had made a mistake in punishing her this way. She had hoped that all three of the girls would learn something from this but maybe she had been wrong.

Still, she thought to herself, there was still some time left for them to work something out.

* * *

"That's it!" Ginny all but yelled as she chucked her folder on the table, making Hermione jump at her sudden out burst "I have had enough of this. I'm going to look for her"

Hermione sighed and leaned back into her chair, it seemed like they had had this talk a million times already. They once again found themselves working in a classroom and once again Pansy had not shown up. While Hermione had expected this to happen Ginny was not taking it so well.

"Look I know your worried but you have no reason to be, she doesn't't want to be here so I see no reason why we should have to-"

"There is something wrong" Ginny insisted as she picked up her bag and stood up "I know that you think I'm just over reacting but I am telling you that something isn't right here. It makes no sense that she would just not turn up when she _knows-_"

"Its makes perfect since. She hates us Ginny, to her your nothing but a blood traitor and I'm a mudblood remember? Nothings going to change that"

A minutes passed in silence as they looked at each other, trying to think of something to say that would change the other ones mind.

"There has to be something" Ginny whispered hopelessly "I know that there is more to it then that Hermione. You were there that day…she was so nice to me. I think they maybe more to her then we thought. Can't we just…try?"

"Alright" Hermione said in defeat "We'll look for her, but if nothing is wrong then that's it okay? No more worrying about her if she doesn't show up, no more-"

"Okay, okay" Ginny snapped "Lets go"

* * *

"We've looked everywhere Ginny, she has to be in her common room" Hermione said as she tried to reason with her friend "For all we know she could still be in bed"

"Yeah" Ginny "Yeah" Ginny sighed in disappointment, she had been so sure that there was something wrong. If she was being honest she didn't even like Pansy very much but there had been something about the way she had been acting in the last week or so that had alarmed her. When she had left them in that classroom to see Blaise and Draco she had looked so scared. Suddenly Ginny missed the days when she had been mean to her, anything was better then that look she had seen.

"I'm really sorry Hermione, you were right. And to think that I made you spend the better part of your day being dragged around by me, looking for someone that we don't even like when-"

Hermione held up her hand to silence Ginny and she frowned, her friend was looking at the floor with a frown.

"Hermione-"

"Shh, quiet" she hissed. "Can you hear that?"

A minute passed in silence before Ginny heard the same noise as Hermione, a low and deep moaning sound, almost like someone in pain could be heard. She panicked for a second before she realised where they were and rolled her eyes.

"Hermione its nothing but Myrtle, you should know that"

Without listening to Ginny Hermione ran to the bathroom door, she knew that she was being silly but there was something about Myrtles yells that were making her hair stand on end. This time was different from the others, something was really wrong.

"Get her out!"

The screams seemed to be three times as louder as they had been before when Hermione opened the door to see Myrtle floating above her head, her hands in fist and her face set in a scowl.

"Get her out" she cried once more as he pointed at one of the toilet doors "Only I can die in here, this is my bathroom, mine!"

_Only I can die in here._

Hermione's heart seemed to stop at these words, the cubical door was ajar and at first she thought that no one was in there but then she saw it and almost screamed. A shoe covered foot was showing from beneath the door, limp and lifeless.

_Only I can die in here._

"Oh god" Ginny moaned as she spotted the same thing as Hermione. Before she could do a thing to stop her Ginny was at the cubical, slowly pushing it open to see who was inside.

"H-Hermione" Ginny choked out as she took a step back "Its Pansy…I…I don't thinks she's breathing"

_Only I can die in here._

* * *

"How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Well you said Pansy was in trouble, you noticed that she was in trouble when no one else could and even when no one believed you, you still would not give up, how did you do that?"

Ginny smiled sadly and shrugged.

"I'm not sure really. I just think that because of everything that happened with…R-Riddle I started to understand what it was like to be in trouble and not being able to tell anyone that you need help. Right after it all happened I walked around for weeks and double looked at everyone that passed me, I was convinced that people where in trouble and needed my help but were too scared to ask for it, so I started looking and some times I would be right. I guess I was this time too"

Hermione nodded lightly before placing her hand onto her red haired friends and smiling in encouragement, she knew that Ginny hated talking about what had happened in her first year but some times you could only not talk about something for a certain amount of time.

"I guess I just hate the thought of someone being as scared as I was back then"

"It must have been hard" Hermione whispered.

"It was" Ginny sighed with a small nod, her voice sounded weak and the edges around her eyes looking slightly damp but Hermione knew that Ginny was not going to try, she hated crying in front of other people like that. "I just wanted to help someone"

"You did" Hermione replied with a small smile. "You did a very good thing tonight"

"Yeah" Ginny agreed lightly with the same sad smile "I just wish that someone had been there to do the same thing for me"

"Me too" Hermione said as she pulled her friend into a tighter hug "I wish that I had been there for you then Ginny or that you would of talked to us about it. But what's done is done and you are…your so incredible strong"

"Thank you" Ginny muttered as she leaned into her friends side, it wasn't in till the night had grown even darker then she spoke once more:

"Hermione?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think that Pansy is strong too?"

"Yeah, I think she is. She'll make it Ginny...I...I hope she does"

"Me too" she whispered as she remembered Pansy's face, pale and lifeless in front of her.

* * *

**I hope you liked this chapter, it was hard for me to get out and I am not sure I really like it but it will do. So what do you think? Did I go mad and take my problems out on Pansy? So come on people and tell me: dead or alive?**

**Haraldzidla**


	16. Perfect Problems

_Please don't kill me, I have cookies...? Okay so I am sorry about how long this has taken but my written has been some what...well, just not happening. Hopefully this chapter will be okay, even though I suck at the moment. This one will mainly be Blaise/Pansy but I have plans for loads of Hermione/Draco in the next chapter!_

**_I do not own!_**

**Chapter Sixteen**

**Perfect problems**

Hermione had no idea how she had ended up here, sitting outside the hospital wing at seven in the morning with Ginny's head resting lightly on her shoulder as she slept. It was true she had been to the hospital wing many times before, mainly for Harry, but never for something like this. Not for something so...unexpected.

She had never thought about Pansy much in the past and even in these last few weeks she had seemed unimportant to everything else. Had there been anyone looking out for the Slytherin girl? Surely she had people in her own house that she could have talked to if there was something wrong. Then again, she thought sadly to herself maybe that was something that Slytherins just didn't do. Hermione tried not to think about it as she listened to the sound of students making their way to breakfast; something told her she was not going to be eating this morning.

Last night had seemed to last forever and yet everything happened so fast. She could remember running down a corridor and yelling for someone to help. Finally Filch had found her, only to drag her to Professor McGonagall proudly telling her that he had "found a student out of bed"

Within seconds she was speaking, trying to explain what had happened. Thinking about it Hermione couldn't even remember what she had said. She could remember taking them back to the toilet and seeing Pansy passed out on the floor all over again with her head resting in Ginny's lap, her mouth open and her eyes closed.

She didn't even look like she was sleeping; she just looked so...pale. So dead.

It wasn't in till they got to the hospital Wing that they were told she would be alright. She had over dosed on a pain potion but luckily they had found her in time. If it had been left untreated for much longer then it would have been different. They had been told to go back to their common rooms but without even speaking to one another they knew they weren't going to. Even though they had been told she would be fine the fact that she had not yet woken up was still in their minds. There was no way they could leave her.

She wasn't their friend, not really, but right now it seemed like they were all she had.

She sighed and told herself to stay awake. One of them had to. It seemed imposable to think that it was only yesterday that she had woken up smiling and thinking of Draco Malfoy. That seemed so long ago now.

The door behind them opened and Hermione smiled sheepishly as she came face to face with a stern looking Madame Pomfre.

"I would like to think that you haven't been here all night" she scowled with her hands on her hips "But looking by the state of Miss. Weasley I highly doubt it"

"Sorry" Hermione said "Ginny was worried; she just wanted to make sure Pansy was alright"

Thankfully Madame Pomfre's expression sofened as she looked down at them and she simply sighed.

"Well some inside then, it will do you no good to sit out here any longer. I can assure you that my chairs are far better than that floor"

She smiled before she went back inside to leave Hermione to wake Ginny up; something told her that they would not be going to their classes today.

"Where is she?"

"She'll be down in a second" Ron said with a small yawn "Maybe she just over slept"

Harry frowned.

"Ron this is Hermione we're talking about. In all the years we have known her when has she ever over slept. In fact when has she ever been late for anything?"

The door to the girl's bedroom opened and both of them looked hopefully towards it, only to see that it wasn't Hermione but two of her roommates, deep in conversation and their arms linked with one another.

"Excuse me?"

They turned and smiled when they noticed Harry, the taller of the two whispered something to her friend, causing both of them to giggle. It took everything Harry had in him not to roll his eyes; you would think that people would stop acting like fools when he talked to them.

"Yes?" she asked when their laughter had finally died down.

"We're looking for Hermione Granger, has she already come down?"

As they both giggled again he looked over at Ron to see that they were both thinking that same thing, no matter how hard they tried they were never going to understand girls. Nothing about this conversation seemed funny to either of them.

"Oh you didn't know?" The girl asked with a small smirk "we would have thought that one of you had been behind it"

Harry couldn't help but notice how her eyes kept on wondering to Ron to a suggestive manner but with one look he knew that his friend was just as clueless as he was.

"What are you talking about?"

"Hermione. It would seem that she never came to bed last night. We just assumed that she had found some where more comfortable to spend the night"

As he once again found himself facing two giggling girls he knew they were down here, with a quick look at Ron they both made their way to the exit, hoping that they would find their friend sitting in the Great Hall waiting for them.

"She wouldn't" Ron said as soon as he knew no one would be able to hear them. "I know she wouldn't. Hermione and I may not of dated for that long but blime me Harry even I know that she would never do something as reckless as...as"

Even though Ron was unable to finish his sentence harry knew what he meant. There was no way the Hermione they knew would ever send the night with someone...especially when you had roommates that talked as much as hers did.

Blaise rubbed at his eyes as he made his way to the Great Hall, he had known without even looking in the mirror this morning that they were red. Staying up half the night could do that to someone. Stupidly enough most nights had been like this for the last few weeks, laying in his bed and looking at the ceiling...thinking. And never getting anywhere. Last night had been worse than the others. There had been something different.

Had could Theo have talked so calmly last night, standing there and informing him of his own feeling like everyone had known.

The very thought made him feel ill. Dear god had ever one known?

Had he been the only one whom-

"Blaise?"

Blaise almost screamed as someone called him, could they not see that he was in the middle of a personal conflict here? And he may have even gotten somewhere this time! But as soon as he turned and saw the look on Snapes face his thoughts were forgotten. Snape had never looked at him like that before.

"I require a word, if you would"

Before he could even think of something to say the potions master had already taken hold of his arm and started to pull him away from the other students. Having no idea what to make of this he simply decided to do nothing and allow himself to be pulled along. If there was one thing that he had learned in his years at this school it was that silence was golden, you should never speak in till you know what you had done wrong. That way they had no way of knowing what else you have done.

Draco looked down at his own hand and did his best to ignore the boy sitting next to him. He had not spoken to Theo since he had been tricked into working "for the light side" and so far he had no plans to do so unless there was no other option. Besides at this moment in time he was more likely to hit him rather than talk.

Even so he couldn't help but wonder why they were here of all places. He had only even been in his head of houses office and hand full of times and even then he had been calm. But there was something different this time.

Just when he thought he could not take the silence a minute longer the door to the office burst open and Snape walked in, pulling Blaise along roughly, just as he had with Draco ten minutes before. Blaise looked just as confused as Draco felt but, not wanting to make any effort with his so called "friend" simply looked away, pretending to be bored.

Snape sat down behind his desk and looked at them with such an emotionless look that even Draco felt slightly uneasy.

"The headmaster has asked that I ask you a few questions about your friend Miss. Parkinson"

Snape watched them closely and, just as he feared they would, all three of their heads snapped up at the sound of her name. As far as he knew the four of them were as close as any Slytherin could be with another and yet...all of them had looks of panic on their faces that had nothing to be with friendship, or even look. He had learned about love with Lily, even if he did think that Blaise might be close there was still something more there.

As always it seemed that Dumbledore had been right in thinking that there was more that Pansy's simply having a "bad day". Something pushed her to do what she did.

When no one said anything Snape carried on.

"I was wondering when you last saw her?"

"Yesterday" Theo answered "In the common room before breakfast, but we didn't get a chance to talk to her"

"I see. Tell me did something seem...off with her at all? Like something was bothering her?"

There was a nervous pause and Snape watched at Blaise quickly looked at Draco and then away, it was almost like he didn't even know he had done. This was enough for him to know that their friendship was not as strong as it had once been. It seemed almost hard for them now.

"No" Draco answered "She's been fine. Why, is she in trouble?"

"Not that I know of, but we do have reasons to be worried about her-"

"If this is because she missed some class's yesterday then I'm sure she just-"

"Silence" He didn't yell but Theo stopped talking at the look he was getting, if there was one thing Snape hated then it was being talked over "do you really believe that I would bring you here simply for some unattended class's? Miss Parkinson was found in one of the bathrooms last night, close to death by drinking an overdose of sleeping potion and I was hoping that her friends could tell me why this is!"

The silence in the room was deafening as they realised what he had said and then-

"Mr. Zabini!"

Not caring how angry Snape sounded Blaise kept on running and it wasn't in till he reached the hospital doors that he stopped, only to find the doors locked keeping him away from the girl he loved.

_So, what do you think? Any way I do want to let people know that I shall be getting a new profile in the new year! This one will mainly be about my "The downfall of Draco Malfoy" story line which will include a rewrite that I am working on at the moment. Any help would be so good right now, including things like: a betta and maybe someone who does youtube vids for people that ask nice *smile* I also really hope that some people would think about writting their own stories and having them put up there. So really I want to make a profile about that world, but have other people involved as well. Let me know if you think if woud be something you'd like to be involved in! _

_Haraldzidla xxx_


	17. The perfect worse day

**Thank you to everyone who reviews, it means alot to know that people are still reading this**!

**Chapter Seventeen**

**The Perfect worse day**

Hermione tried to keep her eyes open as she ate her lunch, today didn't seem to be going too well. She had made the effort to do a quick spell on her hair this morning, hoping to hide the fact that it hadn't been washed in two days, but it didn't seem to of made that much of a difference. It was easy to tell from the bags under her eyes that she had gotten little sleep the night before.

While Ginny had taken up Dumbledore's offer of skipping class that day Hermione had found herself unable to, she didn't even want to think about the amount of work she could of missed. She thought about how that morning had gone and forced herself not to moan out load. It seemed like she may as well not of bothered, looking back on her lessons it felt like she couldn't remember a word any of them had said.

Her body may of been awake but it felt like her mind refused to wake up.

"Hermione?"

At the sound of Harry's voice Hermione looked up and did her best to smile and look awake. She had promised herself that she would stop lying to them but some thing was stopping her telling them about Pansy. Some how it didn't seem like her place.

"Yeah?"

"Are you okay? You seemed to be in your own little world for a moment there"

Hermione laughed and tried to keep her voice normal.

"No, sorry just thinking about what books I need from the libary, thats all"

Harry nodded but shared a quick look with Ron before her carried on.

"Okay, well I was just asking if you wanted to go and see Hagrid tonight? Its been a while since we went down and saw him"

Hermione tried to hide her disappointment as she smiled at them, after everything she couldn't just let them down but right now she wanted nothing more then to sleep.

"I'd love to"

As Hermione looked down her two friends once again shared a look with one another, they hadn't talked to her about her not sleeping in her room last night but they intended to. More then anything they had been hoping that she would of told them on her own.

As Harry looked away from Ron he caught sight of something behind Hermione that made him stop. Two Slytherin boys in their year were whispering to each other and looking at them. It took him a second to remember why they looked so familiar, they were always walking around with Malfoy. Harry frowned as he watched them, anything to do with Malfoy was never good.

"Ron, look"

Harry nodded in the boys direction and Ron and Hermione both turned to look, finally realising that they had been spotted they hurriedly turned their attention back to their meals.

"What the hell" Ron said as he looked back round "What do you think that's about?"

Harry shrugged.

"I have no idea"

Hermione said nothing as her friends carried on talking, she didn't think there was anything she could say. Something told her she knew just what the two Slytherin boys had been talking about.

* * *

_Deep breaths._

_In. Out. In. Out._

Hermione closed her eyes and tried to breath, she had been sitting out side for what seemed like hours and still the air seemed to be no help. No matter how much she tried to calm it her heart still rang in her ears, its harsh beat sounded out of place. Everything else seemed so calm and relaxed, so normal. To everyone else it was a normal day, nothing bad had happened. Everything was as it should be.

_In. Out. In. Out._

But it was all wrong.

Was she the only one who felt like this? It was almost like there was something missing, something that she was missing. A piece of the puzzle didn't fit and it was killing her. She opened her eyes and looked across the Hogwarts grounds almost like she hoped the answer would be there. All of the meetings with Pansy and Ginny flashed threw her mind as she tried to think of some kind of clue. Anything that would explain Pansy to her.

_In. Out. In. Out._

They had spent all that time with one another and yet she knew nothing about the Slytherin girl who used to insulted her.

"Hermione?"

She jumped slightly at the familiar voice and looked around to see Draco standing behind her, his arms crossed and a frown on his face as he looked down at her. She smiled sadly and pulled her knees up to her chest before rapping her arms around herself to protect herself from the chill.

"Hello Draco" Even in her current mood a slight shock ran down her body as she said his name, she had been right in thinking that things had changed. Her cheeks heated slightly as she thought about the last time she had seen him, what they had done…

_In. Out. In. Out._

"What are you doing out here?"

"I'm just thinking" she whispered.

A moment passed before she felt him sit down next to her. Minutes passed in silence as they sat there and enjoyed their own thoughts, some how it felt better to have some one else there to share their pain.

"Its getting colder" Draco finally said.

"I know"

"We should go in"

"I know" Hermione replied quietly "I think I want to stay out here a bit longer"

Draco nodded in understanding, after everything that had happened he was in no hurry to return as well, every where he went there seemed to be something that would remind him of what he had done, something to made him remember what he had made her do.

_No, _his thoughts whispered, _it was her own fault, she wasn't strong enough. She was weak and worthless._

Even as he thought it he knew it was a lie, if anything he was the worthless one. Every thing he had done was to push her, to make her do as he asked. He was no better then his father. The very idea made him feel sick, he had seen his father do things that gave him nightmares. That could be him one day. By the looks of it it was going to be him one day.

"Are you alright? You don't look so good"

"I'm just thinking" he said with a small smile as he mimicked her own words.

Hermione hesitated slightly before she asked:

"About Pansy?"

Draco froze and Hermione watched as multiple expressions appeared on his face, each one as bad as the last; shock, pain and for a second she even thought she saw a hint of guilt in his features. Just as she started to think he wasn't going to answer he nodded.

"You heard then?"

"Yeah" Hermione nodded "Ginny and I were the ones who found her"

"Oh...I'm...that must of be awful for you"

Hermione nodded and tried not to grimace as she remembered Pansy laying on the floor, her eyes closed and mouth opened slightly. They had hardly known one another and yet here she was, trying to think about what life would be like if Pansy didn't recover. She wondered if Pansy would be doing the same if the roles were the other way around. Would she waist her time thinking about a little mudblood like her?

"Granger?"

Hermione snapped out of her thoughts and tried to smile but it seemed wrong, like it didn't fit her face.

"Sorry, I guess my thoughts are else where"

Draco nodded before he took her hand and held it next to him, he didn't know why he did it but right then he didn't much care. For some reason he had a feeling that they needed each other right now, even if things went back to the way they were they could at least have this moment to themselves. A minute passed before Hermione placed her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

Right now she didn't care that he was Malfoy.

She didn't care about all of the names he had called her over the years, all the insults and pain he had caused didn't matter.

Because right now she wanted to pretend that Draco Malfoy was perfect.

* * *

The sounds of the doors creaking open sounded loud to his ears as he pushed them open and looked into the hospital wing. All of the lamps were turned off and the only source of light was the moon shinning through the windows, he spotted her within a second. The moonlight was cast across her face making her look paler then he remembered, in all the years that he had known her she had never looked like that.

Like she was broken.

He walked slowly to her bed and stopped just before he reached it, no matter how hard he tried his feet refused to take him closer. It seemed like even he didn't trust himself any more.

_And you shouldn't _his mind whispered _she is here because of you._

"Pansy?"

He whispered her name, hoping that she would reply, even when he knew she wasn't going to. As far as he knew she hadn't even woken up once yet and no one knew why. Magic was meant to fix most things so why couldn't it fix her?

_Because you broke her too badly._

"No" he muttered to himself as he looked at the girl who used to be like a sister to him "I didn't. I never wanted to...she just wouldn't stop asking questions and everything I did she just-" His voice died as he tried to catch his breath, nothing he said seemed to make any sense any more. "I didn't want to hurt her, I never meant to. I just wanted to scare her to make her realise that...I don't even know"

Without thinking about it he took the last steps forward to her bed and tried to explain, he knew she couldn't hear but right now that didn't seem to matter. He had to tell someone.

"You have to understand" Draco whispered desperately "You have to understand why I did it. Why I treated you that way. I really did think that I was doing the right thing. I didn't even think about you and I know I should of. You were always so strong I just thought that you would move on, but I was wrong. I was just thinking about myself. As long as I can remember there has always been someone who has had some kind of power over me. At home its my father and when I leave this place it will be the dark Lord. Here, in this school that I hate, is the only place where _I_ have the power. People look up to _me_, they fear _me_…it's the only time that I'm not-" Draco chocked slightly and tried to control his voice, saying these things felt like he was doing something wrong.

As soon as he caught his breath he carried on "it's the only place that I'm not scared. That I feel safe. Everyday is the same. I wake up and fear grips me, fear for myself, for the future" He hesitated a moment before placing his pale hand onto hers. It was cold and still under his. If it hadn't been for the gentle raise and fall of her chest he would of thought she was dead. "Some times I even fear for you. We were friends once, were we not? You, Theo, Blaise and myself. Back when there was no war"

His smiled slightly as he tried to picture what their lives had once been like, looking back on it it was hard to think that there had once been a time when the worse thing in their lives was having house points taken away. Now it didn't matter where they were, at home or school, thoughts of the up coming war followed them every where.

"And now everything is different, isn't it? Your here because of what I did and Blaise and Theo...well I don't really know what to say about them. They betrayed me in a way I never thought they would. From what I've heard they've been running around the school looking for me today" he laughed without humour before he continued "something tells me they don't just want a friendly chat."

Draco sighed and squeezed Pansy's hand lightly.

"They betrayed me the same way I betrayed you. I could of killed you, I know that. But what they did will kill me. I can work for the light and have my father kill me of I can die for breaking the unbreakable curse. No matter what I do I will die"

It wasn't in till Draco was saftly tucked into his bed that he whispered the words that had been running threw his mind.

_Maybe its what I deserve._

* * *

**And so there you have it! Just so you all know this will ending soon, and then will be more Draco and Hermione in the up coming chapters, I just had a few things I need to fit in to make this work. If there is anything that you want to see more then let me know!**

**Till next time!**

**Haraldzidla x**


	18. The Perfect awakening

***Hides* I am SO sorry, before anyone kills me just let me assure you that this will never happen again and I have had the worst year of my life. Really. My parents split, I had to leave home ect ect. Just trust me when I say that I was not in the right mind to be writing anything unless you all wanted to end up with pages of forced words. Anyway, new day, new start and finally...NEW CHAPTER **

**It's good to be back.**

**Chapter Eighteen**

**The perfect awakening**

As soon as Draco had woken up he had known that going to see Pansy had been a mistake, for as long as he could remember his father had been telling him how guilt was just one of the many things that could hold a Malfoy back. As he sat in the Great Hall eating his breakfast he had no doubt in his mind that his father had been right, not matter how much he tried to eat his food and ignore those around him he found his gaze looking over at Blaise and Theo every few minutes. Everything that had said to him was playing in his mind, had he really been the one to push all of the people he cared about away?

Maybe the war really wasn't as black and white as his parents had made it seem. Even though he knew that he had no choice but to help them if they ever asked he suddenly found himself wondering what it would have been like to make that decision on his own. As soon as the thought entered his mind so did the image of Hermione's face, her cheeks that wonderful shade of pink that he had never really noticed before and her eyes shining brightly as she smiled at him-

"Draco?"

At the sound of Theo's voice Draco snapped to attention and Hermione's face left his mind, as much as getting lost in this own world was tempting reality seemed to be calling him back down to Earth. With a feeling of dread he looked up to see Theo and Blaise standing there, looking down at him with their normal frowns on their faces.

"Yes Gentlemen, is there something I can help you with?"

"As a matter of fact Draco" Blaise said as the two boys sat down opposite him "there is something"

"Oh really?" Draco replied as he tried to remain unaffected, while he had known that they were going to come to him at some point he had rather hoped to have more time to think of some kind of plan. "What can I do for you?"

"We've had someone watching the Hospital Wing Draco. We know that you went to see Pansy last night. We want to know why"

Draco laughed with relief and relaxed slightly.

"Watching the Hospital Wing? Why ever would you do something as silly as that?"

Blaise scowled and opened his mouth to replied but Theo quickly stepped in as he attempted to stop the fight he could see about to happen.

"We don't have time for your games Draco, you can either tell us what you were doing last night or we'll find ways to find out ourselves, the hard way if need be"

Even thought his old friend's expression had stayed the same he couldn't help but pick up on the threat in his voice. Draco sat there shocked as he tried to think of something to say, he had known Theo since he was five and out of all of his friends he had always been the calmest of them all. It seemed like they really had changed.

And he hadn't even noticed.

"Alright" he finally replied "I went to see her but, as I'm sure you already know she's in perfect health. Is that all you wanted?"

"Why did you go and see her?"

"I really don't think that's any of your business"

"Anything to do with Pansy is our business"

"Are you sure about that?" Draco asked with a small smile "The Pansy I know would never let someone think that her business was anything to do with anyone other then herself"

Blaise and Theo stood up to leave but just when Draco thought he was safe Blaise turned back to look at him with a frown.

"Don't act like you know her Draco, I don't think you know her at all anymore. If you did then you would have left her alone. You used to know her...and we used to know you"

As they walked away Draco frowned and looked down at the table, thinking about a time when he used to know who he was as well.

Years later Hermione would always be able to remember this day perfectly, the smell of the hospital wing and the sounds of other students as they made their way to lunch. In some ways, like many other days she had shared with her friends this was going to be one that changed her life. The large double doors creaked slightly as she pushed them open and as soon as she stepped inside she wished they hadn't. Standing over Pansy's bed was a Slytherin student that she only remembered speaking to once before.

As she tried to think of his name she jumped as he looked up and spotted her, it wasn't in till he gave a small jump of his own that she realised he had been holding Pansy's hand. Well, Hermione thought, I shouldn't be shocked, if Pansy was ever with anyone it was him.

"Granger" The boy greeted with a small nod, his cheeks were slightly pink but Hermione tried not to noticed and simple nodded in greeting back.

"Hello"

An awkward silence filled the room and when Hermione could no longer take it she started to walk forward.

"I'm sorry for interrupting your visit; I just wanted to bring these in for her"

Blaise looked at the flowers in Grangers hand and frowned, why would Granger of all people be bringing her flowers? A thought entered his mind and he looked at the dying flowers next to Pansy's bed that he had noticed when he arrived.

"You're the person that's been bringing her flowers?"

Hermione nodded.

"So?" she asked defensively "I thought that she'd like them"

Blaise nodded and sat down next to Pansy's bed, as much as Granger wasn't someone he called a friend he liked that she was trying to do something nice for her. Besides himself and that small midnight visit from Draco she was the only one who had been coming to see her.

"I'm sure when she wakes up she'll love them"

Hermione nodded and sighed.

"She's been asleep for a long time now, hasn't she?"

Blaise nodded and tried not to look as uncomfortable as he felt, he had nothing against Hermione but talking to her still felt too different for him to not care slightly.

"They say that she could wake up at any moment, it could be tomorrow...or it could be months from now. The only thing we can do is wait"

Hermione made a small sound of agreement as she replaced Pansy's old flowers with the new ones she was holding; from the way she did it so quickly he could tell that she had done this quite a few times before. Maybe even since the first day his friend had been in here. If Hermione noticed him looking at her she didn't say anything, in fact she seemed to be doing her best to not even turn her head in his direction. Finally not being able to take the silent Blaise spoke.

"So Granger why are you here?"

She froze and turned to look at him.

"Excuse me?"

"Well it's just I didn't think you and Pansy even talked" he lied "I was just wondering why you of all people felt the need to bring her flowers. If I remember correctly it was only last month or so that Pansy and yourself had a rather public disagreement"

She was silent for a moment as she considered how to answer him without telling him everything.

"Pansy, Ginny and I were forced to work on a project together because of that...disagreement you mentioned. While we were working on it we became a little closer. Not really friends but more like..." Hermione frowned as she tried to think of the right word to use "to be honest I don't really know. But it was different then how it used to be"

"Besides" She added after a moment of silence "I didn't like the thought"

"The thought of what?"

"The thought of her being alone"

**The next day**

**Pansy's P.O.V**

I couldn't tell you why I did it, only that at the time it made sense. It seemed like I had lost everything that mattered: my personality, my life and my friends. You may notice that I didn't include my parents. Trust me when I tell you that I lost them long before any of this happened. It would seem that the love they have for their daughter is nothing compared to the love that they feel for the "dark lord"

Then again it's been like that for as long as I can remember. I've never really had parents, just countless amounts of maids and nannies. I'm convinced that my mother handed me over to someone else as soon as she was able to. As far as they were concerned I was something that every pureblood family had...and nothing more than that. The only fun I had when I was younger was making my nannies life hell...thinking about it that may have been why I had so many of them.

After a while not even they wanted me.

And then I came to Hogwarts and overnight everything changed. I made friends and they looked after me. For a while there nothing else seemed to matter, we had each other. At first it was easy, there was no war. We always talked about our parents and how badly we wanted to be like them but in reality I think we all knew the truth.

They were murders.

"Miss Parkinson?"

I snapped out of my thoughts and turned to see Madame Pomfree standing next to my bed with a concerned look on her face and I felt my cheeks heat in embarrassment, how long had she been standing there?

"Are you feeling alright?"

I nodded and attempted to smile, it felt like she had asked me this every five minutes since I had woken up this morning. As soon as I noticed the way she was looking at me I braced myself, I already knew what was about to happen and frankly it shocked me that she hadn't already said something.

"I wanted to let you know that Professor Dumbledore is currently on his way down, he wishes to have a word with you"

I nodded once again and leaned back in my bed, this was going to be a long day. I could tell that he was going to ask some awkward questions about what had happened and even now I didn't know what I was going to tell him. I wasn't even able to explain why I had done it to myself let alone try and tell someone else.

"Madame Pomfree?" I said as she turned to walk away.

"Yes?"

"Did...did my parents come and see me at all?"

As soon as the question left my mouth her expression changed and I already knew the answer, in some way I think I had known before I had even asked. I nodded curtly and turned my head away as my eyes filled with tears, the last thing I wanted was for her to see me cry.

"I take it they know I'm awake?"

"The school sent them an owl as soon as you woke up"

"They didn't even write back did they?" My voice cracked on the last word as I closed my eyes, praying that she hadn't noticed.

"Miss Parkinson..."

"It's fine"

Almost a minute passed before I heard her footsteps walking away and the sound of her office door closing a second later. It wasn't in till then that I let myself cry. Even now, after all these years of them letting me down...it still hurt. I covered my mouth and tried to stay silent as my tears fell, I didn't want to be here. Hogwarts had always been my home but now...I had no idea where home was any more.

Draco had never fooled himself into believe that he was a hero. In fact he had always known himself to be a coward. The funny thing is knowing that had never bothered him before now, the more he watched scar face Potter risk his life the more thankful he became that he was. Being a coward may not have been something to be proud of but at least they were the ones who lived to see another day. But suddenly he wanted more than that.

Being that person wasn't enough anymore, it was never going to be enough again.

With every step he took his heart seemed to beat faster, his mind screamed at him to stop but he couldn't, he had to do this before it was too late. Before he was too trapped in his life to be able to change. His mothers face flashed in his mind and he almost faulted, out of everyone in his life his mother had always been the person who had tried to look after him and keep him safe. She had never wanted anything other than his happiness.

All he could do was hope that she understood.

"Mr Malfoy?"

Draco turned to see Dumbledore standing behind him, he wondered for a moment how the old man had gotten there before he pushed the thought to the back of his mind, he right now he had more important things to be thinking about.

"You wouldn't happen to have been on your way to see me?"

"Yes Sir" Draco answered before he could change him mind "I was wondering if I could have a word"

"I was on my way down to see Miss Parkinson"

"Pansy?"

"Yes" Dumbledore replied with a small smile "she woke up this morning, I believe she's a friend of yours, is she not?"

Draco hesitated before he nodded, in truth he had no idea what to say to that. Knowing that Pansy was awake strengthened his resolve and he stepped forward, ready to do what he should of done years ago.

"Professor I want to help"

He was ready to try and be a hero.

**Haraldzidla**


	19. The perfect truth

**Hey everyone, sorry this chapter is so short but I wanted to get this bit out of the way before I could move forward.**

**Enjoy!**

**Chapter Nineteen**

**The perfect truth**

The only sound that could be heard was Draco nervously tapping his fingers on the side of his chair as he waiting for Dumbledore to say something...anything. He had just spent the best part of two hours telling the headmaster everything: about his family, his friends, his life and finally admitting to him what he had done to Pansy.

That had been the hardest part.

Even though Draco knew he should be scared, even worried about what Dumbledore was going to do he was amazed to find that he wasn't. To his shock he found that he felt oddly calm about everything, any punish that was chucked his way was no less then he deserved. In fact the more he thought about how he felt the more he realised that this was the best he had been in years. For the first time in his life he felt like he didn't have his father constantly looking over his shoulder.

He made his own choices now.

"Mr Malfoy I would assume that before you came to me you did think about the possible consequences there could be for your actions"

"Yes professor"

Draco willed himself not to look away as Dumbledore stared at him; there was something about his bright blue eyes that made him feel uneasy. It almost seemed like he could really see him, he didn't think that he had ever had someone look at him like they were really seeing him, rather than the person he pretended to be.

Suddenly Draco knew that Dumbledore was going to believe him, he seemed like the kind of person who would know if he was lying. The headmaster sighed and leaned back in his chair as he watched the young man sitting in front of him, it would seem there were still some things in this life that could shock him.

"Before we carry on with this I think there are something's that we need to take about"

Draco nodded and tried to stay calm, he had known that this wasn't going to be easy. Whatever Dumbledore was going to do he was ready.

Ginny chucked her bag over her shoulder and started running as soon as her lesson was over; as soon as the lesson had started she had wanted nothing more than to leave. The morning had started pretty normal, it hadn't been in till she was on her way to her first lesson that she had heard about Pansy.

As soon as she had heard the two seventh years in front of her talking about Pansy waking up this morning she had known that she had to go and see her, something was screaming at her to go and make sure she was okay. The fact that they didn't get along had never seen a secret but ever since Ginny had found Pansy in that bathroom...all she had wanted was for her to be alright.

"Sorry!" Ginny called as she bumped into yet another person, running had never been her strong point. Her breathing was coming in short gasps as the hospital wing doors came into view, finally she thought to herself as she stopped and tried to catch her breath. She leaned against the doors and attempted to ignore the burning in her chest as she thought about what to do next.

Now that she was here she had no idea what she had come to say. What was she meant to say? As far as Pansy was concerned nothing had changed from the last time they had spoken to one another, Ginny had no idea if Pansy would even welcome a visit from her.

Giving herself a small nudge she pushed open the doors while trying to prepare herself, no matter what happened she had to remember that this wasn't about her. It was about making sure that Pansy was okay.

Ginny had only taken two stepped before she stopped in her track, no matter how much she had prepared for this there was something about seeing Pansy sitting up in bed that made her pause. She looked healthier then Ginny would of thought possible considering that only a few days ago she looked so...cold and lost.

"What do you want?" Pansy snarled as soon as she had gotten over her shock of seeing the red haired girl in the door way, the last thing she wanted right now was her here.

Ginny shrugged and smiled slightly.

"I don't know, I guess I just wanted to, you know, make sure that you were breathing or something"

"Aww" Pansy replied with sarcasm lacing her voice "how sweet. Let me guess, you're also the person who's been leaving me flowers as well. I never knew you cared so much"

Ginny eyes flashed to the flowers briefly before she looked back at Pansy, she knew that Hermione had been the one leaving the flowers but there was no way she was about to tell her that. That was something she would let Hermione make up her own mind about.

"No, sorry. Sadly I really don't care that much. To be honest I was really just hoping to see you slightly helpless. It's not every day that you get a chance like this"

"Oh so that's what this is. Well so sorry to disappoint but I think you'll find it takes a little bit more than an overdose to keep me down"

"Yeah" Ginny snorted "You're really tough"

"Can you leave already?"

"Fine"

"Fine"

"_Fine!"_

"You...you Ginger!"

"Goth"

"Poor person"

"Spoiled brat"

"_Griffindork"_

"_Slythinslut"_

"_Weasley!"_

"_Parkinson!"_

Both girls glared at one another, each one trying to catch their breath as they held the others gaze, both daring each other to look away. A second passed and Ginny finally looked away as the corners of her mouth lifted up slightly, as much as she felt a feeling of irritation to Pansy she couldn't help but feeling happier knowing that Pansy seemed like herself. She had no idea what would of happened if she had gotten here to find Pansy...broken somehow. The image of Pansy laying on the bathroom floor filled her mind and she closed her eyes trying to make the memory of the night go away, she didn't want to think about that in front of Pansy...she knew what would happen if she did.

"Weasley?"

Pansy smirk fell off her face as Ginny faced away from her, for some reason the girls shoulders were shaking slightly.

"Hey, Weasley!"

A bad feeling filled the Slytherin girl as she realised what must be happening. For some unknown reasons Ginny bloody Weasley was crying in front of her. Oh great, she thought to herself, just what I need some bloody girl crying.

She had never been good with this.

"Erm...are you okay?"

"Yeah" Ginny replied as she wiped her eyes and turned around, she tried to smile but Pansy could tell it was forced. "Sorry about that I just...I guess I thought that you would be different. I guess I was just a little bit worried"

Pansy blinked as she tried to take it what the red headed girl had just said, did she say _she had been worried about her?_

What the hell?

Not even her parents had cared about her but this girl that she had been mean to since the day they had met had been worried? A weird feeling filled Pansy and she felt herself smiling against her better judgment. It was only a small one but it was something.

"Well, thank you"

"Your welcome"

A small silence filled the room before Ginny finally broke it.

"Okay, well, I better be off. If I don't hurry Ron will eat everything"

Pansy nodded in understanding and leaned back in her bed, she could do with getting some rest any way.

"I guess I'll come see you again...maybe tonight or tomorrow?"

Pansy hesitated slightly before she nodded her head an inch. For some reason she wouldn't mind seeing Ginny again, something about the way they talked so freely around one another suddenly made it feel like they were...friends.

"Whatever" Pansy smirked "I'm not about to tell you how to spend your time Griffindork"

"Oh whatever Slythinslut" Ginny laughed as she opened the door and left, smiling all the way to lunch. She couldn't help but feel like she had just made herself an unlikely friend.

Hermione smiled as she walked out of the common room, ever since she had found out that Pansy had woken up this morning she hadn't stop smiling, today felt like a new start. As confused as things had been these last few weeks maybe there was a chance that things could get back to normal...or at least as normal as her life ever was.

"Hermione?"

As soon as heard him she stopped walking, she knew who it was without even turning around, much to her dismay it was the same voice that had been playing in her head none stop for the last week or so. Taking a deep breath she turned around and her breath caught as she looked at him, as much as she hated to admit it he looked better then she remembered.

"Hello Draco"

She tried not to blush as she enjoyed how nice him name felt on her tongue, there was something about saying it that seemed so, well, personal. As soon as she caught sight of his face she frowned, he looked a mess.

"Are you okay?"

Draco nodded slightly and gave her a small smile as he tried to think of something to say; as soon as he had seen her his mind seemed to have gone blank. He suddenly had no idea of what he wanted to say.

"Yeah, I just-" he sighed and ran his hand threw his hair; this whole opening up thing was harder than he had thought. Considering he had just told Dumbledore everything this should have been easy. "I was wondering if we could talk. You know- in private"

Hermione nodded.

"Of course" she replied with small smile.

"So did you hear?" she asked as they started to walk "Pansy woke up"

"I know" Draco said without looking at her "In fact as soon as I've talked with you she's my next stop. In fact...she's one of the things that I wanted to talk to you about"

**ohh, is he going to tell her? Want to know? Reviews may just get you your answer ;)**

**Haraldzidla**


	20. A Perfect Monster

**Just to let people know I have given it some thought and changed this stories rating to M. I'm sorry if this bothers anyone but I just want to cover myself, this story has turned slightly...darker than anything I've written before.**

**I don't own Harry Potter, anything you recognize belongs to the lovely J.K Rowling.**

Chapter twenty

A perfect monster

After a minute had passed Hermione attempted to look more encouraging, whatever he was trying to tell her she could see from the worried expression on his face that he wasn't finding it easy.

"I'm not a nice person"

He had blurted the words so suddenly that it took her a moment to realise what he had said, as soon as his words had registered in her mind she saw that he looked as shocked at his own words as she was.

Was there even a reply to a statement like that?

"Erm..."

Apparently not.

"I've done bad things" he carried on when she remained silent "I never wanted to hurt anyone, at least not physically. Then again I didn't really do anything, she did. But if I had left her alone to start with then none of this would have even happened. I made her do it. I know I did. As soon as I heard what she had done I just..."

His voice died in his throat and Hermione could do nothing but stand there and watch as he leaned against the wall and hung his head, in all the years that she had gone to school with him she had never seen him look so defeated. Against her own judgement to comfort him she stayed where she was, she wanted to help him but something was telling her that she couldn't. Firstly because it seemed like it was too personal for her to be able to help and secondly she honestly had no idea what he was talking about.

She thought about what he said and frowned, had he hurt someone?

_I made her do it. I know I did. As soon as I heard what she had done I just..._

Different scenes kept playing in her mind and it took everything she had not to voice them, for all she knew it could be nothing. Maybe he hadn't hurt someone. He couldn't have. She had seen the person he could be, no matter what anyone else thought she knew that there was good in him. He wasn't like his father. Hermione had no idea when her option of him had changed so drastically; all she knew was that it had.

It worried her how much she needed him to have changed. She needed him to be the person that she had come to believe he was.

"What who had done Draco?" Hermione thanked the heavens for her voice sounding so calm, right now she felt anything but.

He looked up at her when she asked the question and held her gaze for only a moment before he looked away again, for some reason he didn't want to look at her.

"I've had a long few days" Draco said instead of answering, he knew he was only prolonging answering the question but he couldn't help himself. He would tell her the truth but it was harder then he thought it would be. "This week I saw myself clearly for the first time. I saw the person I am and the person that everyone thinks I am" He laughed harshly and in that moment Hermione was reminded of the boy she had met all those years ago on September first.

"Draco what's going on?"

"It was me"

"What was?"

"Pansy"

Hermione felt like she couldn't breath, she knew he was trying to tell her something but her mind seemed unable to process it, whatever he was saying had to be wrong. He couldn't have done something. Pansy had tried to kill herself, everyone knew that. She had seen it herself; she had been with Ginny when Pansy was found.

She had been so upset about it and...

...Draco had _comforted _her.

"No Draco. Pansy tried to kill herself re-rememeber?" Hermione had no idea why she was so scared, nothing was wrong "She-she overdosed, it's not your fault-"

"Damn it Granger! Just _Stop!" _Draco roared as he stepped towards her, his hands were clenched into fists and the look on his face was enough to make her step back "Stop making this harder! I'm not a good person, I made her do it! She tried to kill herself because of me!"

"No, no, you just-"

"I overheard you talking to Weasley and Pansy Granger. I know all about your silly little mission" He smiled in a way that made her heart hurt, not with giddiness as it had done only days before but something far worse: fear. "I saw a chance to have fun, to make you hurt. I wanted to crush you and your stupid dreams. I wanted nothing more than to see you hurt. I didn't even think twice. I did everything in my power to make you pick me. I wanted nothing more than to see the look in your eyes when you realised what I had done. I was using Pansy to do it Granger"

His words made her freeze and her breathing was started to become faster, more panicked. He had known what she was doing. He had been playing along, teaser her without her knowing it. It had all been fake, none of it was real.

Nothing but the hurt she was feeling.

That was too real.

"I had her steal that little book of yours. I threatened her Granger. She didn't want to. I don't know why but suddenly...suddenly she started to fight back. She was so scared and still..."

Her eyes filled with tears and she wanted to leave...it would have been so easy to walk away, to escape his words and just go and see Pansy.

But she couldn't, she had to know.

"...still she wanted to help you. I never realised. All those years and I never saw how much good she had in her. I only had the book a few days before she stole it back, before you even had a chance to notice that it was gone. When I realised what she had done I...got angry. This time I didn't threaten. I took her to a room on the seventh floor, a small dark room that no one would be able to find and I locked her in there. No food, no water. I just left her. She had no idea if I was going to be coming back. I wanted her to think I was going to leave her there. I wanted her to know that I could do that, I had the power. Her life was in my hands, not hers-"

His voice faulted but he carried on.

"I left her there to think about what she had done to me. What _she_ had done to _me_"

He laughed harshly and the very sound made her shiver, she had never heard anyone laughed like that. There was no joy in the sound, just unmistakable bitterness that appeared to seep from him.

"I didn't even think that I had done anything wrong. And do you know what the worst thing is? The big punch line? Besides the two people who knew that I had taken her no one noticed that she was missing."

_Ginny did_ Hermione wanted to scream _Ginny noticed and I ignored it._

"I think that's what made her do it. I was the only person who knew where she was. Finally after a while I let her out and then when I did I threatened her a final time. I told her what I would do if she told anyone and then I made her stay away from the two people who really cared about her. I took them away from her"

Her finally looked at her and wished he hadn't, her eyes were shinning with unshed tears and he knew that she felt as sickened by him as he was with himself.

"I don't understand" Hermione finally muttered as her tears started to fall "Why are you telling me this?"

"I have to. You're going to find out from someone else soon anyway I...I wanted it to be me"

"Right, of course you did" Hermione replied, she was still crying but her anger was slowly building, her hands were shaking and she wasn't sure if it was from the shock of what he had said or from how angry she felt "You wanted to, what was it? Of yes: look into my eyes when I realised what you had done"

She laughed and to her own ears it sounded different than normal.

"Well here's your chance then _Malfoy_" taking a few short steps she was in front of him, her eyes were locked onto his and she made sure not to look away for even a second "Come on then, look into my eyes" his gaze was flickering across her face but not once did they meet her eyes "Come on, _fucking look at me!"_

His eyes finally found hers.

"Well, is this what you wanted? Was it this moment that you saw in your head when you day dreamed of this moment Malfoy? Are you _finally_ happy?"

It wasn't in till she was out of sight that he answered.

"No"

* * *

Everything was a blur, she knew where she was going but she had no idea what she was going to do when she got there. Her head was down and she avoided the people around her, she didn't want to talk to any of them. Right now she wasn't even sure if she could say anything.

As soon as the Hospital doors came into view she was suddenly running, Pansy would know. She would tell her the truth. The doors opened with a loud bang as they hit the walls and the laugher that had filled the room moments ago came to an abrupt stop as Pansy and Ginny looked round to see Hermione standing there.

The first thing Ginny noticed was the tears.

"Hermione!"

Ginny quickly tried to help her friend but Hermione gently moved her away, she only had eyes for Pansy. The black haired girl sat up straighter in her bed and her heart dropped as she saw the look on Hermione's face. Without her even having to saying anything she knew that Hermione had found out about Draco.

"I'm so sorry" the words were spoken quietly but even from across the room Pansy could hear them clearly. "Ginny said something was wrong" Hermione tried to explain as she moved closer "she said that she thought something was happening with you but I thought it was nothing, even after you...did what you did I ignored the truth. If I had just opened my eyes and looked more into it then maybe I could have done something"

Pansy smiled slightly and shook her head.

"There was nothing you could have done"

"I could have at least tried"

Ginny stepped forward and looked between the girls; clearly she had missed something here. Before she could comment Pansy spoke:

"How did you find out?"

"He told me" Her voice caught and a small sob escaped "He told me everything"

**Please let me know what you think!**

**~Haraldzidla**


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